Over Here

Rating:
Summary: Smart Stuff
Review: A refreshingly direct and insightful discussion of the anglo-american relationship, and from a diplomat no less. Chapters are organized topically, so this is a book you can read in 10-minute sections, great for flights and train commutes.

Rating:
Summary: Smart Stuff
Review: A refreshingly direct and insightful discussion of the anglo-american relationship, and from a diplomat no less. Chapters are organized topically, so this is a book you can read in 10-minute sections, great for flights and train commutes.

Rating:
Summary: most interesting diplomacy
Review: I love the way diplomats talk! Here is someone joking about American and English culture in a way that seems sharp, but is really so smooth it offends nobody (I assume. I'm not British or American, so I'm just guessing). I love it. It's most educational. I especially like the part where he describes M. Thatcher and the way she treats American senators. Ah yes, what a woman! Towards the end, he describes his fall from grace with the American president. It was kind of glossed over, but since I was expecting nothing of the kind from the former ambassador to London, it seemed to be fairly honest bitterness. Overall, I really liked this book. It was funny, and it was a glimpse into the lives of the privileged. Nice.

Rating:
Summary: most interesting diplomacy
Review: I love the way diplomats talk! Here is someone joking about American and English culture in a way that seems sharp, but is really so smooth it offends nobody (I assume. I'm not British or American, so I'm just guessing). I love it. It's most educational. I especially like the part where he describes M. Thatcher and the way she treats American senators. Ah yes, what a woman! Towards the end, he describes his fall from grace with the American president. It was kind of glossed over, but since I was expecting nothing of the kind from the former ambassador to London, it seemed to be fairly honest bitterness. Overall, I really liked this book. It was funny, and it was a glimpse into the lives of the privileged. Nice.

Rating:
Summary: Top notch.
Review: Raymond Seitz was a very popular ambassador during his time in London and was, by all accounts, a good friend to Britain (though I suppose that's not really the point of his job...). He has written an amusing, gentle and well observed memoir.

The criticisms related by other reviewers, including my fellow Brit, do have merit but I personally feel that the book's good points more than make up for the bad. In terms of his broad sweep (the big issues - historical context, transatlantic relationship and the like) Seitz has pretty much got his subject pegged. He makes a lot of very astute observations, not all of which make comfortable reading for a British person. It also reveals something about the American policy making process with regards to ambassadorial positions in general and UK policy in specific.

I would certainly recommend both Brits and Yanks having a look at this book. It is an easy read and is split into bite-size, largely stand-alone chapters.

Rating:
Summary: Over Here: required reading for visitors to Britain
Review: Witty, urbane, informed. Seitz served as US ambassador in London during the Bush and Clinton administrations. His observations on the UK, from a sympathetic American perspective, are both a great read and a solid contribution to an oft misinformed topic. As the book covers suggests, Seitz does for Britain what Alastair Cook's Letter from American does for the US. One of the best of its genre.