A Jolly Good Guide to Proper English Why Our Colonial Cousins Got It Frightfully Wrong
Two nations divided by a common language.
So observed George Bernard Shaw, and after two decades of teaching English internationally, Simon Macartney can confirm the old boy was onto something.
This is a book about misunderstandings. Glorious, mortifying, occasionally career-ending misunderstandings between two peoples who theoretically speak the same language but somehow manage to mean entirely different things when they open their mouths.
It's about vocabulary that will get you slapped in one country and offered a cup of tea in another. It's about grammar wars fought with passive aggression and strongly-worded letters. It's about why the British apologise for everything, why Americans are terrifyingly enthusiastic, and why neither side will ever agree on what constitutes a proper biscuit.
Part linguistic guide, part cultural anthropology, part exasperated confession from a man who has spent far too long explaining to Americans that he is not, in fact, being rude—he's just British.
If you've ever wondered why two countries that allegedly share a language manage to confuse, baffle, and occasionally horrify each other on a daily basis, this book will not only explain why, but make you laugh about it.
Probably.
Unless you're American, in which case you might need a glossary.
(There's a glossary.)
Simon Macartney is the founder of Empire English Online, and a man who firmly believes the letter 'u' belongs in "colour." He has taught English on four continents and still hasn't recovered from any of it.