Review: Useful and fun read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 18, 2013
The author of this book is an American who moved to Scotland after marriage.  The book is informative and a fun read.  Another reviewer says you can’t read the book cover to cover because it’s arranged by topic in alphabetical order.  I read the whole thing and wished for more.  Some of the things she mentions—such as their tiny fridges—are known to many Americans.  Other things were a surprise.  I didn’t know their pills all come in blister packs because the government thinks people would reconsider suicide while opening all the packets.  I didn’t know they don’t have to keep their eggs in the refrigerator because the eggs aren’t washed before you buy them, so they allegedly don’t go bad as quickly.  There is a lot of humor in the book, which some reviewers have interpreted as unhappiness, but I thought was just her style of humor.  She was honest about what was good and what was bad about living in the UK, what she misses from the US, and what things she likes better in Scotland.  One note of caution,  I suspect many Americans will see “Britishness” in the title and think England.  I expect her experience living in Scotland is different from say somebody living in Surrey, for instance.  I think it is good to have the author’s realistic perceptions to counteract all the Downton Abbey / Jane Austen fantasies of living in the UK.  I highly recommend this book for people contemplating moving to Britain, for vacationers, or just for people interested in other cultures.  I wish she would write another one.