True Brits: A Tour of Britain In All Its Bog-Snorkeling, Shin-Kicking and Cheese-Rolling Glory

FOR FANS OF BILL BRYSON, A HILARIOUS ACCOUNT OF THE ANTICS AND UTTERLY STRANGE TRADITIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. When J.R. Daeschner first witnessed cheese rolling, he was astounded. As an American who had lived in the U.K. for years, he knew the British did some odd things. However nothing could have prepared him for the sight of men and women flinging themselves off a grassy cliff in pursuit of wheels of cheese. He soon discovered that Britain has scores of seemingly lunatic acts enshrined as traditions: events with strange names like gurning (a match held since 1267 in which contestants compete to pull the ugliest facial expression); shin kicking (another breathtakingly stupid competition in which two contestants kick each other until one falls over in a pile of sheep manure); horn dancing (drunken villagers parading while adorned with deer antlers); and the ever-popular pope burning (an event in which the Pope is burned in effigy). Each of these events, and many more, is covered in this highly entertaining account of one man's journey through Britain.