- Publisher: Michael O'Mara
- Year: 2024
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 160pp
- Illustrated: Yes
- Dimensions: 197x127mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.1kg
- ISBN: 9781789296426
- Product code: 539383
The Wicked Wit of England
Postscript summary
Geoff Tibballs explores the English sense of humour and how it seems to be rooted in idiosyncrasies such as social awkwardness, an obsession with the weather, and a reverence for queuing. Anecdotes featuring jokers and eccentrics are interspersed with quotes from humourists but also figures as varied as Stephen Hawking and Thora Hird, altogether representing a wit that ranges from the bawdy to the sophisticated and satirical.
If there is one thing that first-time visitors to England find mystifying - along with our obsession with discussing the weather, our pride in making the perfect cup of tea, and our impossible-to-decipher slang - it is our unique sense of humour.
Have you just been insulted? Or was the slight merely a demonstration of affection? Was that a genuine compliment? Or is the ever-present sarcasm in English conversation at work again? The dark, dry and often ironic humour of the English can be difficult to get your head around, but there's no doubting its essentiality at the heart of English culture.
As well as celebrating this classic humour, The Wicked Wit of England encompasses the various idiosyncrasies of the English character - the social awkwardness, the constant need to apologize, the stiff upper lip, and the love of queuing, to name but a few. Containing a varied collection of stories, anecdotes, quips and quotes featuring English people from all walks of life, from Quentin Crisp to Frank Skinner and Stephen Hawking to Thora Hird, this book might not help outsiders fully understand the English, but it might help them tolerate us a little more.
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