I Just Read…

…The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall

I was looking for something a little different. Perhaps some travel writing. Perhaps something in the way of humorous essays. I found this charming book, which is something in between.

When Sarah Lyall moved to London in the mid-1990s, she became what cultural anthropologists strive to be: She was an outsider, looking at the British culture from the inside.

A young reporter for the New York Times, Lyall soon became known for amusing and sharp dispatches on her adopted country. Confronted by the eccentricities of these island people (the English husband who never turned on the lights, the legislators who behaved like drunken frat boys, the hedgehog lovers...), she set about trying to figure out the British.

Part anthropological field study and part memoir, The Anglo Files has already received great acclaim and recognition for the astuteness, humor, and sensitivity with which the author wields her pen.

Author Malcom Gladwell says: “The Anglo Files should be handed out, as a public service, at the immigration line at Heathrow.”

Just in case you aren't at Heathrow any time soon, you can find The Anglo Files in the Copper Queen Library's collection of materials on Britain (at 941.086 LYALL).

--by Hanje Richards