How to be an Alien by George Mikes - Part 2 - Chapter 23. British Newspapers

How to be an Alien by George Mikes
Introduction
The weather is the most important subject in the land. In Europe,
people say, ‘He is the type of person who talks about the
weather,’ to show that somebody is very boring. In England, the
weather is always an interesting, exciting subject and you must be
good at talking about it.
George Mikes wrote this book to tell the English what he thought
about them. He is both funny and rude about the strange things
English people do and say - the things that make them different
from other Europeans. In this book you will learn many useful
rules about being English. You will learn how to talk about the
weather, and what to say when somebody brings you a cup of tea
at 5 o’clock in the morning. You will discover what the English
really think of clever people and doctors. This book will help you
to be more like the English. As George Mikes says: ‘If you are
like the English, they think you are funny. If you are not like
them, they think you are even funnier.’
George Mikes was born in Hungary in 1921. He studied law at
Budapest University, and then began to write for newspapers. He
came to London for two weeks just before the Second World War
began, and made England his home for the rest of his life. During
the war he worked for the BBC, making radio programmes for
Hungary.
He wrote How to be an Alien in 1946. He did not want to write
an amusing book, but thousands of English people bought it and
found it very funny. He wrote many other books about foreigners
and English people. The story of his life, How to be Seventy, went
on sale in bookshops on his seventieth birthday in 1982. He died
in 1987.
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