Consists of How to be an Alien (first published in 1946), How to be Inimitable (1960) and How to be Decadent (1977). Playful, gentle satires about the English (or rather, Londoners); the third probably less good than the first two (which it occasionally regurgitates). ( )

I remember around forty years ago hearing Wilfred Massiah, my English teacher at school, eulogising this book, or at least one of the component sections, [How to be an Alien], citing it as one of the funniest observations of the British that had ever been written. I had then, and retain now, a huge regard for Mr Massiah, and owe him a huge debt for pointing me towards any number of great writers, and regret never having found the opportunity to tell him so. In this instance, however, I fear his normally reliable judgement had completely failed him.

Back in the 1970s, when he was recommending this book to me, it was already some thirty or so years old, and it is now more than seventy years since it was first published, so it is reasonable to expect that literary tastes have changed considerably. I still fail, however, to understand why it proved so popular (and in publishing terms it was a huge success, selling hundreds of thousands of copies over the decades). I found it laboured, trite, utterly banal and comprehensively unfunny. It didn't even merit the dismissive judgement of, 'I laughed until I stopped'. Laugh? I never even started ( )

A masterpiece of self-deprecation, funny, witty and at times hilarious. Even though somewhat dated (the first part 'How to be an alien' was published in 1946), the author appears to go straight to the heart of quintessential Britishness. ( )

http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-be-a-brit-by-george-mikes---book-review-a... ( )