At last we have a book that makes a convincing attempt at combining EFL methodology with material on Britain and British culture! Teachers have been waiting for just such a book since the last Millennium. Was it worth the wait?

In a word: maybe. The Student’s Book is organised into ten thematised units, starting with some fairly refreshing units, like What Is Britain? and Cultural Diversity, but ending with more predictable themes, like Education and Leisure. Perhaps the early units are a brave attempt at developing a critical context through which the student can read the later units, but quite frankly the later units only deal with the preoccupations of the white middle classes of Britain. And that’s the problem: the book ducks tough issues like class in Britain all too often. There are no units on politics, history, empire, religion or the Royal Family.

Having said that, the units may have been chosen much more carefully than has so far been suggested. After all, do we really need another book that deals with the hackneyed old themes that we all know inside out? Why should the book waste one of its units on dealing with British history, when there are plenty of useful books and materials out there already (albeit that we have to adapt the format of the materials)? This book might be trying to do something else altogether. The book does not look backwards at the old institutions of Britain, but tries to look forward (at the dawning of the new Millennium) and give a cross-section of life in modern Britain.

And another point to make is that the book has clearly been written with younger students in mind. The book avoids boring and heavy topics in order to try and appeal to a particular audience. That audience is the international market, a market that is getting younger and younger. The book wants to give a flavour of Britain but at the same time stay general enough for foreign students to be able to relate to their own personal experience when dealing with the topics (as an example, the last unit is entitled Being Young Today). On such counts, the book is very successful.

That flavour of Britain comes via the bright and useful pictures, the authentic texts (including, newspapers, extracts from plays and novels, magazines, and leaflets), the snappy but meaty activities and the interesting, varied listenings (with an variety of authentic accents!). The book is appealing to the eye, user-friendly, easily accessible and dynamic – everything Blair’s Britain might wish to be, some might say. It is pitched at an upper-intermediate level of English and should appeal to those of a secondary school age (though that does not mean to say the book has nothing to offer older students).

The activities never focus on particular language points – this is not an English language teaching book, anyway – and generally represent an integrated skills approach to teaching; an approach that has thus far not been explored to the full in mainstream British Studies teaching.

The result is a well-presented book with possibly something to contribute to the teaching of British Studies, but a book that may lack substance for those with a deeper interest in British culture.  The image of Britain that comes across in this book is that of a Britain where life is happy and harmonious and there is no controversy. There is no intolerance or anxiety, only community festivals and cultural integration. Sadly, this is not the Britain I know.