‘An Italian Job: Two Days in the Life of an Englishman in Italy‘
A follow-up to my Crossing the Cultural Divide: the Gaffes of an Englishman in Italy, this is the second of my books to present us with the loveable (!) Hugh Stalwart, now more mature and more reflective (though only slightly less accident-prone).
On the occasion of his 50th birthday he feels the need to weigh things up after all his time in Italy, and to re-establish why he still resides there and why he left his native England in the first place.
His reflections are hampered, however, by a hectic work schedule in Verona, Macerata and Rome, by wacky students, by his tendency to nod off, by his fixation with rugby, and by various human beings insensitively invading his personal space.
A lively array of characters includes Ham, an outspoken, muscle-bound New Yorker, and Stalwart’s temperamental, unfathomable colleague Lucia, whose fascination with this Englishman appears to go well beyond mere cross-cultural issues.
Published 2012; in e-book format only.
Available on Amazon’s British site, American site and Italian site.
Published primarily for the Kindle, but accessible to any e-book platform through the free kindle app.
++
Reviews
“…The hapless Hugh Stalwart is a truly funny character, a cross between Basil Fawlty, Hugh Grant, with little bit of Johnnie Wilkinson thrown in. As an Englishman living in Italy, the book finds him constantly baffled in his communications over the weekend he turns fifty. This book does not imply that Italy and the Italians are particularly problematic to the Englishman, but demonstrates, on every page, the Impossibility of Communication, whoever and wherever you are and whatever language you speak – or don’t speak!
Stewart is an academic linguist of many years’ experience with a bottomless curiosity in how people communicate with each other, and the miserable yet amusing failures that can ensue. Brilliant and worth every penny!” (Amazon reviewer).
Dominic Stewart, Writer 