Once upon a time when I lived in the UK, I belonged to Cambridge Writers and worked on putting my expat pratfalls down on paper. Then, life and kid happened, but after years of being asked, “Have you written a book?”, I’ll now have one to offer later this year. And here’s what it’s all about:
High Tea and the Low Down: An American’s Unfiltered Life in the UK
When American Claire Craig Evans married a charming British man, there was a cost for the snappy banter and countless offers of tea: she had to uproot life as she knew it and relocate to the UK. Why wouldn’t she want to move to an enchanted island where mysterious women with dewy complexions made jam in thatched cottages with millennia-old lichen attached?
Sure, experienced American expats offered nuggets of wisdom (“Bring over a lifetime supply of taco seasoning!”) but they weren’t even mild comfort as Claire tried to avoid death, jail, and wayward sheep while learning to navigate zebra crossings and drive on the “wrong” side of the road. The allure of a jet-setter lifestyle vanished as fast as Air India sent her Samsonite to Delhi instead of London Heathrow. Would more tea help her figure out how long she’d been wearing the single pair of underwear in her possession? (That was the jetlag talking. They do have underwear in the UK, too.)
“High Tea and the Low Down: An American’s Unfiltered Life in the UK” is a keenly-observed memoir full of laugh-out-loud moments as Claire experiences the reality of English living, appealing to fans of Bill Bryson and Bridget Jones alike. If she couldn’t even pass a pub quiz, how would she ever pass the infamous “Life in the UK” test, the high-stakes hurdle required to stay on British soil (and with her husband) indefinitely?
