A Transatlantic Adventure Fueled by Tea and Hedgerow Fruit

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. Who wouldn’t 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.)

Fans of Bridget Jones and Bill Bryson alike will enjoy High Tea and the Low Down, a keenly-observed memoir full of laugh-out-loud moments as Claire experiences the reality of English living. 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?

Ben Evans