British as a Second Language: Travels Among the English

by David Bennun

David Bennun had lived in Africa his whole life. At the age of 18, he came to Britain, the mother country—the country he had read about and seen in films. Would it be the noble, educated, admirable United Kingdom he had been led to expect? He was in for a very big shock indeed. Readers follow his life as a student, his brushes with Bohemia, his troubles renting and buying property, his discovery of British food, and his horrors at entering the world of work. From DIY to architecture, sport to alcohol, transport to music and entertainment, this book brilliantly and with ruthless wit deconstructs all these subjects, many of them so dear to the British heart.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Andreas Happe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure why this is rated so poorly. Hyperbolic fun read that I wouldn't (and couldn't) take seriously, in a way that reminds me of Top Gear of all things. A third in the book, having sex with a very drunk (and soon to pass out) woman is casually mentioned, I hope that this part was hyperbolic too.

If you can laugh at "across Britain, what the Luftwaffe may have started, contemptuous design and construction have sure to complete", the book is one for you. It's full of stereotypes so it's hard to take anything serious in it. It still made me laugh from time to times.

[Sophie Zanoon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as fun as I expected. He should have read more Beano's when younger.

[Laurie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun. Funny. But draggy at times when he seemed to be doing verbal acrobatics, showing off his use of language. Irony, granted, in that is the premise of the memoir.

[Tim Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

David's anecdotes are drawn out; one particular ugly one is David's encounter with a woman called Leah (page 105).

She was pretty. And extremely drunk

After the details of their sexual encounter, David writes:

Leah passed out cold. I might as well have clocked her with a paperweight. [...]
I doubted she would recall it or much else in the morning. She didn't. She said goodbye and fled...

This book is a memoir of Mr Bennun's time in the UK. It's an interesting time capsule of late 80's student life and the early 90s heyday of British print media. However, he does come off more times than not a bit of a curmudgeon. Unsurprisingly he was a show writer on the late 90's Jeremy Clarkson chat show. Reading this book, you see why he got the gig. It sometimes feels like 'Littlejohn's Britain' for the chattering classes.

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very funny, light hearted read.

[Bookguide · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this book made me laugh out loud, other parts dragged a little, and much of it was recognisable. I grew up in the UK, and graduated from university the year before Bennun went to Brighton. So his descriptions of university life on a red-brick campus university were spot on (I went to the similar establishment of Loughborough). His style of writing is also very familiar, reminding me as it does of my music magazine of choice, as a teenager, Smash Hits. His description of what he calls the "crusties"made me guffaw: "they'd been breeding in the more affluent parts of the Home Counties, then changing their names to rough-hewn, short-form monikers which evoked smells and slops, like Spog, Spam, Stig and Swampy." Ah, yes!

I did feel that some of his more jaundiced opinions about British food, habits and attitudes to drinking were not based on "typical" situations, however. After all, students and music journalists in the 1980s are not exactly renowned for their cooking skills and sober lifestyles. Bennun has lived in the UK for eighteen years, so at this point you would think that he would be able to talk about more middle-class society, and base his opinions on the way that section of society lives now. Things have moved on a long way from the 1980s and 1990s. I was also disappointed that there were not more anecdotes about his mistakes as an "outlander", or the things which he found peculiar as a foreigner living in England. As a long-term expat, I have to admit that it does become difficult to remember what was odd or difficult when you first move to another country, but given the title of the book, I would have expected more. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read, especially as it was written by a near-contempory.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6...

[Shaila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, insightful, and lighthearted,but sometimes a bit boring, long-winded, self-indulgent, and contrived.