Penguin Readers are written by specialist ELT authors. The language, vocabulary, style and content of every book is carefully graded to make sure it suits the learner's own language ability. Every Penguin Reader has a range of activities in the book and accompanying Factsheet to help increase comprehension and develop reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.

George Mikes has been studying the British for a long time; here in one book are his three major works, in which he unstintingly offers the fruits of forty years of field research to all aspirant Brits. Having himself been born abroad, Mr. Mikes is in the ideal position to counsel others in the same unhappy state — and even Brits born and bred may pick up a few unexpected tips from his irresistible blend of laconic humour and sharp observation.

If you want to succeed here you must be able to handle the English sense of humour. So proclaims George Mikes' timeless exploration of this curious phenomenon. Whether it's understatement, self-deprecation or plain cruelty, the three elements he identifies as essential to our sense of humour, being witty here is a way of life. Perfectly placed as an adopted Englishman himself, Mikes delivers his shrewd advice — helpfully divided into 'Theory' and 'Practice' — with a comic precision that does his chosen country proud. Drawing on a trove of examples from our rich comic canon, from Orwell (Every joke is a tiny revolution) to Oscar Wilde, this is the essential handbook for natives and foreigners alike. Mrs Kennedy: I don't think, Mr Churchill, that I have told you anything about my grandchildren. Winston Churchill: For which, madam, I am infinitely grateful.