Review of Fantastic Kingdom by Helen von Bismarck – an outsider’s guide to British politics | history books
‘CContinental people live sexual lives; The British have hot water bottles.” Hungarian journalist George Mikes saw it in How to Be an Alien (1946), one of the finest examples of the tradition of foreigners explaining themselves to Britain. From Voltaire to VS Naipaul, outsiders have often highlighted national peculiarities, exposing contradictions inherent in British life