British Live Comedy

Jacob Torney, uprooted from his Cumbrian home at the tender age of fifteen-and-a-half, had to get to grips with a new language and culture whether he liked it or not. Thrust into small-town Spanish life just when he should have been studying for his GCSEs, his candid account tells not only of his own ups and downs, but also those of his Guinness-guzzling, tax-evading father, his long-suffering mother, and his happy-go-lucky younger sister, Katie. After steering a shaky course between the pitfalls of adolescence and the huge demands of school life, Jacob holds nothing, or very little, back ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His ancestors include John Hathorne, the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials who never repented of his actions. Nathaniel later added W to make his name Hawthorne in order to hide his relation. The Scarlet Letter, his most famous novel, was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels, including The House of the Seven Gables, and various short stories. "The British Matron" is a satirical essay.