How To Be an Alien
George Mikes
Illustrations by Nicolas Bentley
88 pages
published in 1946

I didn't mean to buy more books last friday, but there we were, in Amsterdam's famous Waterloo Plein, famous for its open market full of stalls selling clothes, furniture, trinkets and other shiney things, and there he was, selling English language paperbacks for an Euro the piece, or 3 for 2.50, or seven for 5.00. What's a guy to do? The lure of books was irrestistable...

Among the pile of eleven or so books I ended up buying were two George Mikes book, this one and Any Souvenirs?, both of which I bought on Sandra's recommendation.

George Mikes is a Hungarian born journalist and writer, who was sent to London in 1938 to cover the Munich crisis and ended up staying. How to be An Alien is his pisstake on how the English treat foreigners as well as some of the more general idiosynchronities of English life. Since it was written just after the war, it is somewhat outdated but still recognisable enough.

Though the author complains in the preface to this impression that he was surprised and a bit disappointed by the favourable reaction How to be An Alien got in England, I think he protested a bit much. The humour in it is gently admonishing rather then bitingly sarcastic, the author's affection for the English shining through the sarcasm.

On the whole I liked this book, but I have to admit it was not that funny: mild chuckles instead of rolling on the floor funny. Recommended if you can get it from your local library or second hand.