The English: A Portrait of a People by Jeremy Paxman (Penguin, £7.99 in UK)

The English like criticising themselves and even laugh at themselves, though they dislike others doing so

The English like criticising themselves and even laugh at themselves, though they dislike others doing so. Generalisations about nations and national traits are a chancy business as a rule. Yes, the English are insular, but then they are an island people; yes, they have always despised or disliked foreigners, yet England is a multi-racial society. Arrogant? Yes, but so are the Germans and the French. Elias Canetti is quoted as saying that English homelife is about "security and monotony", which is undoubtedly true but surely applies to other nations as well. Paxton is readable all the way, but the English are an odd race and it will take more than witty, argumentative, rather impressionistic books such as this to make them comprehensible to the average foreigner.