English Humour for Beginners

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"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 is a way of life here.Perfectly placed as an adopted Englishman himself, Mikes delivers his shrewd advice - helpfully divided into "Theory" and "Practice" - with comic precision. Drawing on a trove of examples from our rich comic canon, from Orwell (who said, "Every joke is a tiny revolution") to Oscar Wilde, this is the essential handbook for natives and foreigners alike.