Watching the English ^{2nd Ed.}

A bestseller in the UK, Watching the English is a biting, affectionate, insightful and often hilarious look English Society. Putting the English national character under her anthropological microscope, Fox finds a strange and fascinating culture, governed by complex sets of unspoken rules and bizarre codes of behavior. Through a mixture of anthropological analysis and her own unorthodox experiments — even using herself as a reluctant guinea-pig — Fox discovers what these unwritten codes tell us about Englishness.

• Introduction — Anthropology at Home
• Part One: Conversation Codes
• The Weather
• Grooming-talk
• Humour Rules
• Linguistic Class Codes
• Emerging Talk-rules: The Mobile Phone
• Pub-talk
• Racing Talk
• Squaddie-Talk and Two Types of Rider-Talk
• Part Two: Behaviour Codes
• Home Rules
• Rules of the Road
• Work to Rule
• Rules of Play
• Dress Codes
• Food Rules
• Rules of Sex
• Rites of Passage
• Conclusion: Defining Englishness
• Epilogue

Well, the second edition shows signs of being updated. But it is still mostly a decent book, even though it is pretty funny!