I’m going to be in the minority amongst my fellow Anglophile bloggers, but I liked The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British
by Sarah Lyall.
This book came out late last year and I got it for Christmas from my wife, who suffers through my Anglophilia with an understanding that borders on saintliness. I wasn’t looking forward to reading it after seeing negative reviews from my fellow Anglophile bloggers, but I dove in and honestly, I liked it a lot. It’s not a perfect book by any means but, overall, enjoyed it.
I may love Britain, but I know it’s not a Utopia. It’s not the most perfect place in the world and I love insights into Britain’s strange culture. As Anglotopia’s columnists have shown time and time again, things may SEEM the same in Britain from the outside, but they couldn’t be more different.
I’m a bit of cynic myself and I like her wry, cynical writing style. However, there were times I did not like her cynicism and critical eye about Britain. Sometimes she’s a little off base in her criticism of Britain. The irony about this is that she seems to have gone native in this respect and shows that particular British form of self-deprecation that annoys her so much.
Really, what bothered me was her perfect life. I mean seriously, she’s a full time writer, working for one of the best newspapers in the world, living an upper class life in London with her famous English writer husband, perfect kids and no worries. Frankly, her perfect life annoyed me and it was a little hard to buy her complaints sometimes. Really, though, it comes down to envy. I want her life (minus the being female part of course…). I want to be a writer living in the UK with my perfect family.
Structurally the book was fine. The chapters are divided into interesting topics such as British Politics, British Sex culture, British love for cuddly animals and much more. She’s a little to preoccupied with British sexual habits, but sex sells after all. The thing that bugged me the most was that there were far too many footnotes throughout the book. This made staying focused on what she was writing difficult. I’d see that little * and have to look down, then find my place again. Very frustrating.
I get the impression that she has a love hate relationship with England but if she wanted this book to appeal to avid Anglophiles, she really needed to focus more on the loving Britain part. There are interesting insights into British culture and politics. I really enjoyed the chapter about Parliament and the House of Lords.
I enjoyed this much better than Queenan Country by Joe Queenan. Actually I never finished that book because I couldn’t stand someone being to negative and smartass about Britain. He hated Britain and wore that on his sleeve.
It was a wonderful and thoughtful gift from my wife and I would recommend it to any Anglophile. I’m definately going to hold on to it and add it to my extensive Anglophile library.
I give it 4 out of 5 Union Jacks because Sarah Lyall is a little TOO negative sometimes.
About jonathan
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.
I can tell you that I’m not envious of her and I thought she came across like a snob. Nobody’s life is that perfect so don’t let her fool you. You’re right about the love-hate thing. Who is her target audience with this book? I think the chapter about sexuality really plucked my nerves. She made a lot of assumptions in that area. To me she’s like the Ann Coulter of Anglohpile land!
I haven’t been able to make it through this whole book, but I think that some of the things she says is pretty insulting to English people. For example, in the beginning, she claims her neighbors’ habit of being too formal for her liking to be rude, and I think she’s takes their dislike of her (gee, I wonder why they don’t love her) and applies it broadly to Britons in general. She also said she doesn’t think that between the American and English culture, that one is better than the other. But I think she DOES think that one is better – her arrogance definitely shows. I gave up on her, but now that I’ve read your review, maybe I’ll pick it back up again.
I haven’t read this book,but I have listened to her video’s,personally she talks a load of rubbish,she uses terms I have never heard of even though I am a 43 year old British male,it seams she makes up things as she goes along and twists the truth,she must get a kick out exaggerating and talking stupid and I believe her attitude is bad for Americans and British peoples opinions of them,I have met Americans in Britain that are like her and wonder why they even leave their superior country to come to Britain,she’d do us all a favour if she went back to where she came from,incidentally when I cycled across 2 American States last year I found the American people to be the opposite of her,they were respectful of British people,they seamed to like us and were very friendly,she is a bad advert for Americans and I think anything written by her about Britain should be avoided.
I’m British/American born there living here, love both, and I think that she captures the culture -aspects of it perfectly, (if you asked John Cleese and the Monty Python crew I think they would agree). The Brits are very good at laughing at themselves while still liking who they are. This book made me laugh out loud because it rang so true. I think what comes across to me is that she actually loves it there with all of the foibles that come with it.