Stuff Brits Like: A Guide to What's Great about Great Britain

As the lead writer for BBC Anglophenia, Fraser McAlpine (a man assembled from almost every region of the UK*) spends his life explaining Brits to foreigners. Now he lifts the lid on our Marmite pot of nations and takes you on a journey from the Isle of Wight to Inverness, Belfast to Bangor, exploring the joyful enthusiasms (and pet hates) of an endlessly multifarious Britain. Stuff Brits Like celebrates why we like puns and pedantry, decorum and drawing willies on things, Trainspotting and Downton Abbey , apologizing needlessly (sorry) and cocking a snook. We cheer both the underdog and the bad guy, we adore melancholy types like Morrissey and grumpy Eeyore... and we love being told off by scolds. Meet mythical beasts from the Scottish Nuckelavee to the Cornish Knocker ; the branch of the WI called the Iron Maidens, and the British Cheese Board (yes, it is really called that); find out which eccentric Lord would only eat his meals in his swimming pool, why postboxes are bright red (it's health and safety gone mad) and the origin of weird traditions such as the Burning of the Clocks. Stuff Brits Like takes you through why Doctor Who could only have come from Britain, why cricket is a form of siege warfare in whites, and why we argue about the best five British films or what makes The Great British Guitar Band...

Fraser McAlpine was raised in Oxfordshire by English parents from Grimsby and Scottish grandparents from Paisley, and he lives in Cornwall and works in London. He's the lead writer for BBC Anglophenia (specializing in Doctor Who) and has worked as a music journalist for Radio 1, Radio 2, Top of the Pops and the NME. Visit www.stuffbritslike.com @csi_popmusic