The Daily Mash: Class Wars

Love this fun and cheeky guide to British social
Classes. I think it would make an excellent gift for those Anglophiles out there wanting to know a bit how British culture works .

Astutely observed, takes no prisoners and is absolutely hilarious with plenty of laugh out loud moments. This delivers line after line and on varied topics. I probably identify as somewhere right down the middle so could make use of looking both up and down and chuckling at the full set because I’m including laughing at myself. This is absolutely packed with head nodding moments about growing up and living in Britain and there are so many tongue in cheek moments. I wouldn’t advise reading this if you’re easily offended or uncomfortable with your status in life but if you’re good at not taking yourself too seriously then this is right up your boulevard. My copy was slightly blighted by an unfortunate affliction whereby any ‘fi’ or ‘fl’ combinations within words were missing in action. This, however, was quite good fun to fill in the blanks (read ll in the blanks) and it was as though I was reading the whole thing in an elitist secret code. Shhh. A great read.

They seldom make comedy books about just one subject these days, on account of not many people being funny enough any more. Here, however, we have a perfectly one-note comedy book on the British class system, and we've probably not had the like since George Mikes first started out. Here is all the gamut of British class, from those who have it, to those who have it and regret that (the posh school inmates talking perfect wiggah), to those that thought they had it until it was proven that watching "films" was different to watching "film". Builders detect it in your voice and hoik the price up, a faux pas with the crochet toilet roll cover leads to suicide, people who pronounce 'pain au chocolat' the French get a permanent label as hoity-toity and even a lobster turns up to lament about being sold in Lidl.

For those out of the loop, The Daily Mash and the Mash Report is a generally lefty, none-more-dry fake news creation, and the script room is strong enough and intelligent enough to be able to rinse anyone in any number of ways. As a result this really shouldn't be found boring anybody – the topic is always class, as I say, but the ways it is attacked are numerous, all the posh names, social references and suchlike are spot on, and the whole never gets repetitive. I defy you to name many stand-ups who would know to refer to that one with the eyes in "Upstairs, Downstairs" as one of the posh bints that would still turn you down even when real.

And if you really are out on a loop, then yes, Britain has always, does, and probably always will, really care where you shop, what university you went to, where you sit on an airplane, and what your opinions about the country's biggest pub chain is. No class will thank you for boasting about owning this, but you will have to thank yourself for the purchase, for it's great fun. It is, essentially, sweary hyperbole, but classy with it. Now, you'll have to excuse me – I'm off to Waitrose...