Mrs Joyce Hoover’s How To Be British

Lee Gone Publications, 1994 ISBN 0-9522870-0-5
Rates: UK: £6.00 incl. P&P
Europe: £7.50 incl. P&P
Other rates available on request.

Mrs. Joyce Hoover is Brighton's leading landlady. Nowadays, with the decline of the traditional British seaside holiday, she focuses on cost-conscious catering for overseas students on English language courses, and she has a lot to say on the subject of British identity, British culture, and the importance of learning ‘proper English’.

At first glance, Mrs. Hoover might seem an unlikely symbol for this ‘city by the sea’: she isn't fast or flashy, she isn’t young, and she isn’t exactly fashionable. She doesn’t like foreign food or coffee bars, and the only club you're likely to find her at is The Brighton and Hove Ladies Loose Cover and Hanging Basket Society. But, like Brighton, she’s got a lot of front; she manages to reconcile historic elegance with cheeky seaside fun and, like most landladies, she shows an admirable tolerance for foreign currency of all denominations. If you could break Mrs. Hoover in half (though I wouldn’t advise you to try) you would find Brighton written all the way through her, like a stick of seaside rock.

Mrs. Hoover is carefully and sympathetically managed by language teacher, author and illustrator, Martyn Ford. If you would like to book her to do a show or a talk, contact martyn@lgpcards.com

Sample pages from Mrs Joyce Hoover’s How To Be British

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