Rob Temple

Not sure when I'll get around to checking out the book proper, but I sure do enjoy the Very British Problems Twitter feed, and from what I can tell, the book is basically that but categorized. "Very British problems" seem to mostly include passive-aggressive politeness, extreme understatement, and paralyzing self-consciousness. In short, lots of people can suffer from Very British Problems, regardless of their nationality. A sampling of my favorites from the Twitter feed:

Insisting so emphatically that someone go through a door first that your tone becomes a little bit threatening

"I might join you later" - Meaning: I'm not leaving the house today unless it's on fire.

"That's certainly an option" - Translation: Let's not do that

"I've been involved in a fracas" - Translation: Several people are dead

Finding someone standing in front of your desired sandwich, so pretending to study a pasta salad until they leave

"I'll put the kettle on" - Translation: I'll temporarily solve all our problems… (mehr)

Not bad at all. It is very British. I have 77 notes and highlights in this ebook, most of them very British expressions. At times, even my inner voice changed to a very British accent (sounded mostly like the voices of John Oliver, Tom Hiddleston, and Hugh Laurie - in turns, not at the same time, I have no idea what that would sound like). At other times it changed to whatever accent the author was doing in the scene.

I loved the references I could get and that they weren't explained (yeah, I'm a real sucker for being treated as an intelligent reader instead of as one with very limited mental capacity). The book reminded me of Adrian Mole, multiple times, telling us about all the misfortunes but instead of the constant whining, we got some hilarious self-irony, gratefulness, and acknowledgment of the good times as well.

It was fun. (Which, by the way, is the exact same review I gave the new Marvel movie 'Black Widow' yesterday.)… (mehr)

This book was quite a bit different than what I expected. It's basically a collection of tweets (and maybe Facebook posts?); observations on the British cultural identity - each page only listing a half-dozen or so and each chapter attempts to categorise them into different areas (travel, weather, sex, etc.).

That's not to say I didn't enjoy what was there; most of them are funny and quite a few of them apply to me. Either I'm secretly British, or the UK has a lot of introverts; I'm guessing it's more the latter than the former. Some of them were so spot-on it was scary.

I'd have preferred a narrative style myself and if asked, I'd say while it is definitely worth reading, it might be better borrowed from the library or picked up at bargain prices.… (mehr)