|
| When we got engaged, we knew it was the dawn of an era of togetherness-living together, vacationing together, paying bills together, maybe even showering together-but writing a book together wasn't something that we had ever considered. Then we spent a week in England visiting with family, attending a friend's wedding, and going to a few dinner parties-it was the first time we'd been to the UK together-and Leslie, the native New Yorker, had about a million questions for William, the native Londoner. What's an "ASBO"? Who are "chavs," "yobs," and "hoodies"? How about a TARDIS? Who's more important: a duke or an earl? Is "bloody" a very bad word or a mildly bad word? What's "salad cream"? Is Kylie Minogue really an icon in the UK? Do I tip at a pub? And what the heck is a "test match" at "Lord's"? Some of the questions were so basic they seemed embarrassing: Exactly what's the difference between the UK, Britain, and England? How often are parliamentary elections held? Is the UK a member of the EU? If so, then why do they use pounds instead of euros?
In short, over the course of that trip we realized the cultural divide between the US and the UK is really a gaping chasm. We needed a book that would answer all these questions once and for all. And so we wrote Britannia in Brief - together. And it worked out surprisingly well (except for a few minor nationality-based disagreements regarding punctuation and spelling).
Since we embarked on this project, we've been able to forego the previously necessary debriefings on subsequent trips to the UK-whether they were about The Profumo Affair or Melvyn Bragg-and it was a huge relief for Leslie to finally get the jokes and join the conversation and for William to not have to answer so many questions.
We hope that you find as much satisfaction and enjoyment in reading Britannia in Brief as we had writing it (which is to say, it was a very positive experiment in togetherness).
|  |
|
|
