In brief: Guide warns over English

May 16 2008

Rough Guide warns tourists that the English are impossible to understand, and they don't even understand themselves.

"England is a querulous, quarrelsome country - it always has been", says the new Rough Guide to England.

A nation obsessed with toffs and C-list celebs, the guide goes on to say that political debate, on issues such as immigration, Islamic terrorism, and street crime, is "served up with liberal dollops of celebrity chit-chat".