The Angry Island: Hunting the English

Description

The English are naturally, congenitally, collectively and singularly, livid much of the time. In between the incoherent bellowing of the terraces and the pursed, rigid eye-rolling of the commuter carriage, they reach the end of their tethers. Perhaps aware that they're living on top of a keg of fulminating fury, the English have, throughout their history, come up with hundreds of ingenious and bizarre ways to diffuse anger or transform it into something benign. Good manners and queues, roundabouts and garden sheds and almost every game ever invented from tennis to bridge. They've built things, discovered stuff, made puddings, written hymns and novels and for people who don't like to talk much, they have come up with the most minutely nuanced and replete language ever spoken - just so there'll be no misunderstandings. In this hugely witty, personal and readable book, A.A Gill looks anger and the English straight in the eye.

AA Gill was born in Edinburgh. He is the author of two novels, Sap Rising (1997) and Starcrossed (1999), books on two of London's most famous restaurants, The Ivy and Le Caprice, and a travel book, AA Gill is Away. He is the TV and restaurant critic for the Sunday Times and is a contributing editor to GQ magazine. He lives in London and spends much of his year travelling.

'In a series of fascinating essays, Gill reveals there is a swell of suppressed anger in the English... Much of it is extremely funny, the reader is left with the queasy question: what if he is right?' SUNDAY TIMES (30/7/06) 'An entertaining polemic... a thought-provoking, some would say overdue, book that challenges the English self-image of genteel reserve.' CHOICE