Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 9781439156537
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
The English American
by Alison Larkin
A Vogue Most Powerful Book of the Season
A Redbook Book Club Pick of the Month
A Family Circle Best Beach Read
The English American tells the hilarious, moving story of an adopted English woman who finds her birth parents – and true love – in the USA.
NEW audiobook edition with Bonus material!
AudioFile Earphones award-winning recording.
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Praise for The English American
“The English American has something universal to teach about adoption and all the big issues that go along with it, including love, grace and acceptance. Both poignant and funny, the story rings true because the author has lived the situation. It looks like Larkin has a winner on her hands in this semi-autobiographical novel about an adoptee’s identity crisis.”
–The Oregonian | read full review
“The English American is a funny, charming and poignant book — the kind that you can’t resist reading in a single day.”
–Chicago Sun Times
“The English American is an engaging, highly readable tale of one woman’s search for love and a place in the world.”
–The Star Ledger
“Deceptively simple in framework, the novel successfully veers between poignancy and outrageous humor, with Larkin having great fun with English and American cultures as Pippa navigates her way through the culture clashes and extended families to recognize her unique, quirky self..”
–Library Journal
“Drawn from Larkin’s own life, this debut novel – like Pippa herself – is smart, funny, and utterly charming.”
–Booklist
“The English American is a heartfelt journey through the dual life of a vulnerable woman who is searching for her past in an attempt to find her future…this comedic jaunt into the nature v. nurture enigma is sure to acquire a beloved spot in hearts and on bookshelves for years to come.”
–GTWeekly
“You need only to turn the page to find something that will make you laugh…or cry…Pippa’s journey of self-discovery and identity becomes our own. I still think about her, weeks after finishing this book.”
–Adoptive Families Magazine
“Alison Larkin has written a book that makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Not only that, The English American is a story that you’ve never read before… You will love it!”
–Gail Parent, Emmy Award winning writer for Tracey Takes On, The Golden Girls, and The Carol Burnett Show
“Alison Larkin nails the Anglo-American cultural divide brilliantly in the most compelling novel I have read in years. Fast-paced, moving, deeply comic and sexy, I could not put it down.”
–Clive Pearse, HGTV, Host of Designed to Sell and Design Star
“Larkin’s debut novel takes a comedic but heartfelt look at issues of identity, heredity, and self-acceptance…Pippa is a complex, compelling character—truly an amalgam of her heredity and her environment—and readers will root for her as she uncovers her roots and finds herself.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The novel, while provocative and thoughtful, also is extremely funny.”
—Mike Frechette, Mostly Fiction
“The English American’ takes a warm and comedic look at who we really are…Pippa Dunn has to know, is it heredity that makes us who we are? Or, is it our own self-acceptance that defines us? More importantly, is the reason she feels like an alien because she was adopted? Or is it something else?”
—Hollywood Today
“Summer reading doesn’t have to be fluff – it just has to be good. And it probably should be something you won’t mind being seen with poolside at the hotel, on the beach or aboard the plane… Besides offering interesting insights as to how others may see us, The English American has the virtues of a pleasing, fast-moving plot, believable characters (it’s semi-autobiographical) and excellent writing by an author in search of her origins.”
—Karen Hayman Long, Tampa Tribune
I just finished The English American by Alison Larkin which I absolutely loved! I have been doing a fair amount of reading this summer, but this is the first book that I’ve read in a while that I raced through and enjoyed absolutely every moment of. It is a very easy read with interesting, likable characters… I highly recommend this novel if you’re looking for some light, fun summer reading.
—MySpareTime.wordpress.com blog
“A charmingly written novel… a quick, fun read.”
—Bess Newman, Bestsellers at About.com
“This book is a page turner that makes you want to slow down as you reluctantly approach the final pages so this extraordinary experience does not end. At times I could not stop myself from laughing out loud, and I wept through the last few chapters as I went along with Pippa while she arrived at her own wonderful conclusions about herself.”
—The Decree
“Larkin pokes gentle fun at the peculiarities and excesses of English and American culture in this witty, clever and imaginative plot.”
—Tuscon Citizen
“A vibrant romp that takes readers back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean…The English American is bright and funny and a bit chaotic, just like Pippa…Despite some heavy issues, Larkin manages to keep The English American light and accessible. Her approach is sensitive and heartfelt and always with a dose of humor.”
—Jessica Harrison, Deseret News
“I loved this book from page one and zipped right through it. I know you are going to enjoy it too. The English American is perfect mix of excellent writing, a fun story line, and a dose of humor.”
—Conversations with Famous Writers
“Pippa’s wise and sparklingly funny voice keeps her reader engaged and urgently turning pages…This is a necessary novel about adoption, but also a beautiful novel about growing up; about coming to terms with the fact that, while the people and events that brought us to life and formed us matter profoundly and inform everything else, we each have our own private story to discover and breathe into life.”
—Rainbowkids magazine, Violetta Garcia-Mendoza
“Alison Larkin’s debut novel The English American is set up to be standard chick-lit fare: a beautiful, intelligent…”
—PopMatters
“As a teenage adoptee, there are many times I have felt misunderstood or couldn’t explain why I did the things I did… After reading the first twenty pages of Alison Larkin’s new novel, The English American, that feeling changed. Suddenly, I was completely understood, and by a stranger!
What I found especially powerful is that while Larkin is British and I consider myself American, she is Caucasian and I am Latina, this novel was extremely relevant to my life and my experience as an adoptee…her talent for making the reader want to laugh and cry at the same time make The English American impossible to put down. I recommend it highly.”
—Sofia Arroyo, PACT newsletter, adoptee and second-year college student majoring in International Relations in Los Angeles
“The perfect airplane read!”
—Redbud Book Club
“A heartwarming and hilarious book about finding the truth.”
—Little Apple Bookworm
“Following Pippa through her various mishaps on the way to self-discovery is a riotous ride. However, The English American is not just a barrel of laughs; it also serves as a great reminder that, for better or worse, we are what our experiences have made us. ”
—The Salemite
Alison Larkin’s take on the issue of identity, while couched in a fast-paced contemporary novel, infuses the subject with realism, humor, and compassion.
—Inthefray magazine
“An enchanting tale bolstered by unalterable, gritty life-truths”
—Tapestry Books
“The English American” is the most readable novel I’ve undertaken in a while — I devoured the book over a single afternoon, drawn to Pippa Dunn, an undeniably likeable narrator, from page one.”
—Book Beat, San Mateo Daily Journal
“Once I started this, I could not put it down. While this is an entertaining, light read, the story leaves the reader with some great morals. I would recommend this novel to readers of different genres due to its content. I was really happy with the end result and I’m looking forward to reading anything else Larkin writes.
—Book Diva’s
“A highly readable novel about the very English-bred Pippa Dunn, who discovers her birth parents in the American South. Frequently funny, sometimes very poignant and always entertaining — a great read.”
—The Island Bookseller, a Hilton Head, S.C., store with Book Sense
I was sent The English American by Alison Larkin for review, well, many months ago. It has taken me until now to pick it up. Once picked up, I couldn’t put …
—birthparents.adoptionblogs.com
“a funny, warm, risky novel…The English American will speak to anyone in their 20s whose gone searching for their true self. Funny, sexy in parts, very real.”
—Satellite Sisters
“Instead of the expected heartfelt memoir of an adoptee meeting her birth parents, The English American is an absolute whirlwind of a novel. Larkin treats you to a hugely powerful ending which will have you pouring over every page. The English American will fill you with incredible warmth as it highlights the importance of childhood and those who were in it as well as the importance of home and those that make you feel at home.”
—Bookbag
In this enjoyable first novel, it’s a pleasure to watch her do just that.”
—MartinsvilleReport.com
“Hilarious and poignant debut novel.”
—South West Public Libraries
“Terrific, insightful – the story line is superb…”
—Genre-Go-Round Reviews
“Hilarious novel that I read in one day. If you are an Anglophile and live in New York City, you will love it.”
—This Next
“It is a story that touched my heart.. It brought tears to my eyes as it will many readers. Its heartwarming and hopeful. All I can say is get the book. It is awesome.”
–Blogspot.com
“I loved following along and sharing Pippa’s life. She is hilarious and real, definitely someone I would love to be friends with.”
—Reviewed with Q&A by Readaholic Blog
“Larkin created a poignant world, drawing inspiration from her own life. Pippa enchants, corals and surprises at every turn. Larkin has created characters so authentic, you’ll be inclined to check over your shoulder in assurance they aren’t reading you their story aloud.”
—Paige Crutcher, Examiner.com
“Compulsively readable” is right. I couldn’t put it down”
—Reading/Writing/Living
“I was completely charmed by Larkin’s witty writing and shrewd observations about the difference between Yanks and Brits.”
—Thisbookisforyou.blogspot.com
“A wonderful mix of mystery, humor, suspense and heartwarming family togetherness. As I was reading, I’m thinking the book is great, now I can’t wait to see the movie!”
—Adoption TODAY and Foster Families TODAY
“This is the first time an adopted heroine has been authentically portrayed in fiction with genuine mass market appeal.”
—Annette Baran, co-author The Adoption Triangle
“Alison Larkin’s book is magical – artfully written, laugh-out-loud funny, insightful and inspiring. People with adoption in their lives will simply adore it. And people without adoption in their lives (there are some, I’m pretty sure) will lose sleep as a result of it – because, no matter what time it may be, they won’t be able to stop turning the pages.”
—Adam Pertman, Author Adoption Nation, Executive Director Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist
“Alison Larkin has written a book that is not only hilariously funny, but poignant and deeply moving as well. She gets the absurd complexity of an adoptee’s life down perfectly. Our heroine Pippa Dunn cracked me up, then broke my heart over and over. I was cheering for her the whole way.”
—Susan Ito, co-editor, A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption
“This book is funny, endearing, romantic, heart wrenching and heart warming, and I dare you not to devour it in as few a sittings as possible. It’s the perfect book for a Sunday afternoon curled up by the fire with your cat, and one day I hope to see it on the big screen as I think it would make a fantastic movie.”
—Clare Swindlehurst, Blue Archipelago
“Alison Larkin’s debut novel The English American is set up to be standard chick-lit fare: a beautiful, intelligent, and independent woman must overcome an obstacle to find happiness in love and life…”
—Christina Clarkson, Pop Matters
“The English American is a great novel that is funny, touching and all around entertaining. It shows what really makes a family and what aspects go into creating our identities. A wonderful debut novel with a main character you can’t help but be intrigued by.”
—Krysten Hager, Pop Syndicate
“Pippa Dunn was raised in England and decides to find her American biological parents. A very good story of Pippa’s emotions and coming to terms with being ‘English-American’.” (5 stars)
—Phyllis, The Book Reporter
“Pippa struggles through the tremendously difficult process of first acknowledging her need to seek out her birth parents, dealing with the emotional upheaval of actually finding them and trying to fit them into her life, balancing her new family against her old, and finally dealing with the extraordinary demands coming at her from all directions – her journey had me absolutely riveted… The English American was immensely rewarding.”
—Elvie, Paperback Dolls
About The English American
When Pippa Dunn, adopted as an infant and raised terribly British, discovers that her birth parents are from the American South, she finds that “culture clash” has layers of meaning she’d never imagined. Meet The English American, a fabulously funny, deeply poignant debut novel that sprang from Larkin’s autobiographical one-woman show of the same name.
In many ways, Pippa Dunn is very English: she eats Marmite and toast, knows how to make a proper cup of tea, went to a posh English boarding school, finds it entirely familiar to discuss the crossword rather than exchange any cross words over dinner with her proper English family. But Pippa–creative, disheveled, and impulsive to the core–has always felt different from her perfectly poised, smartly coiffed sister and steady, practical parents, whose pastimes include Scottish dancing, gardening, and watching cricket.
When Pippa learns at age twenty-eight that her birth parents are from the American South, she feels that lifelong questions have been answered. She meets her birth mother, an untidy, artistic, free spirited red-head, and her birth father, a charismatic (politically involved) businessman in Washington, D.C.; and moves to America to be near them. At the same time, she relies on the guidance of a young man with whom she feels a mysterious connection; a man who discovered his own estranged father, and who, like her birth parents, seems to understand her in a way that no one in her life has done before. Pippa feels she has found her “self” and everything she thought she wanted. But has she?
Caught between two opposing cultures, two sets of parents, and two completely different men Pippa is plunged into hilarious, heart-wrenching chaos. The birth father she adores turns out to be involved in neoconservative activities she hates; the mesmerizing mother who once abandoned her now refuses to let her go. And the man of her fantasies may be just that…
With an authentic adopted heroine at its center, Larkin’s compulsively readable first novel unearths universal truths about love, identity, and family with wit, warmth, and heart.
Book Excerpt: Chapter One
I think everyone should be adopted. That way, you can meet your birth parents when you’re old enough to cope with them. Of course it’s all a bit of a lottery. You never know who you’re going to get as parents. I got lucky. Then again, if I’d been adopted by Mia Farrow, rather than Mum and Dad, today I could be married to Woody Allen.
As far as the side effects are concerned, I discovered early on that the key to dealing with a fear of abandonment is to date people you don’t like, so if they do leave you, it doesn’t matter. Either that, or guarantee fidelity by dating people no one else wants.
Which is why, at the age of twenty-eight, while my friends are getting married to men who look like Hugh Grant, I’m still living with my sister.
Charlotte and I are sharing part of what used to be a Georgian house, before it was turned into flats, in West London, opposite Kew Gardens. The Kew famously referred to by Alexander Pope, on the collar of Prince Frederick’s new puppy:
I am his Highness dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
On the morning of the day everything will change, but I don’t yet know it, I jump out of bed half an hour after the alarm goes off, wolf down a bowl of cornflakes, and scrabble about in the bottom of the broom cupboard for an umbrella. It’s raining, of course.
“Charlotte, have you seen my brush?”
“Try your sock drawer,” she says.
My sister is a buyer for Harrods. She’s looked the part since she was three. She emerges from her room, impeccably dressed, blond bob perfectly in place, handbag over her shoulder, car keys already in hand.
“Pippa,” Charlotte says, “you’re a gorgeous woman. Positively Titian. I wish I looked like you, but — how can I put this? Today you look like a plumber.”
I’m wearing overalls, which I enjoy very much. Put a different colored T-shirt under them and it looks like you’re wearing an entirely new outfit.
“I suppose you want a lift to the tube too?”
“Thanks,” I say. God knows how I’m going to get to work on time when Charlotte moves in with Rupert.
We’re almost out of our front door, which has been opened and shut by Londoners for nearly two hundred years, when Charlotte spots a tiny piece of cornflake on my shirt. She takes her hanky out of her pocket and starts jabbing at it with the precision of a woodpecker.
Ever since I can remember, my sister, friends, parents, and occasionally even complete strangers have taken it upon themselves to wipe spills off my clothes. Without asking. They simply assume I feel the same way as they do about food stains. I don’t. I think it’s absurd that anyone thinks they matter.
But I also don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings. So when people start wiping food stains off my clothing, I act surprised that the stain is there and thank them profusely.
It’s all about what interests you. If I spend a whole day with you, and someone asks me afterward how you are, I’ll know what you’re feeling, i.e., sad, happy, preoccupied, pissed-off — whatever it might be. I’ve always been able to tune in to people in that way. But ask me what you were wearing, and I’ll draw a blank.
Charlotte will not only be able to report on exactly what you were wearing, down to the color of your socks, she’ll somehow know about the hole on the inside of your shirt, even if you’ve tucked it into your trousers. She’ll know the name of your hairstyle, the brand of your lipstick, and the make of your car.
Charlotte was born a year after me. I was adopted. She wasn’t. It happens a lot, I gather. People think they can’t have children, adopt one, and then, bam, a few months later, the mother gets pregnant with a child of her own.
Like Mum, Charlotte thinks before she speaks, makes pros and cons lists, and is content with her life the way it is. She’s practical, grounded, solid, sure.
I, on the other hand, interrupt people because my thoughts fly out of my mouth. My handbag’s full of rubbish. And I want to do something that matters with my life. Right now I’d like to write plays, sing in musicals, and/or rid the world of poverty, violence, cruelty, and right-wing conservative politics.
I’ve tried to be happy leading the kind of life that makes Mum and Charlotte happy, really I have. But pretending to be interested in things I am not is becoming more and more difficult. Take Scottish dancing. If you’ve ever been to any kind of Scottish dancing evening in the south of England, you’ve probably met my dad. He’s the Scot at the microphone, with the shock of thick white hair, barking out orders. He’s never happier than when he’s marching up and down a drafty church hall in his tartan kilt and sporran, teaching the English a new Scottish dance.
There are more than three thousand of them. To date he’s checked off two hundred and fifty-two. He keeps his dance list in the right-hand cubbyhole of his desk, next to his spare golf balls and his paper clips.
“Set to the left!” he shouts. Dad’s lived in England so long his Scottish accent is barely detectable most of the time. Except when he’s trying to teach the English to Scottish dance. Then his Scottish burr becomes much more pronounced.
“Now set to the right! Turn your partners. Very good, Charlotte.No, Pippa! Wrong way! This isn’t the Dashing White Sergeant!”
I’ve always felt restricted by Scottish dancing. You can’t do your own thing. If you twirl to the left and jump in the air when everyone else is turning right during the Eightsome Reel, for example, you’ll spoil the dance for everyone else.
I think it’s one of the saddest things in the world — don’t you? — when people are upset because the direction they’re going in feels all wrong for you — and you know you just have to go the opposite way.
COPYRIGHT © 2008 BY ALISON LARKIN
Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion:
1. In what ways is Pippa American? In what ways is she English? Do you think there are national characteristics to being an American? If so, what are they?
2. How much of Pippa is nature, how much is nurture and how much is individual choice? What do you think about this question in relation to yourselves?
3. How effectively does the author use humor in the book?
4. What is your favorite scene in the book and why?
5. How does the author explore themes of fantasy and reality in relation to both Pippa’s romantic and her parental relationships?
6. If Pippa decides to stay in America and marry Jack, what do you think she will miss most about England?
7. How do you think Pippa’s journey frees her up to be herself?
8. How do you feel about Billie? If you could give her advice about how to help her daughter before she meets Pippa, what be your list of Do’s and Don’ts?
9. How do you feel about the way Mum responds to Pippa when she tells her she feels she needs to find her birth parents?
10. Has the author been successful in her attempt to show why Pippa’s need to search for her birth parents is not a rejection of their adoptive parents?
11. In what ways are Walt and Dad similar? In what ways are they different?
12. Are you one of the 60% of Americans who have a personal connection to Adoption? If so, what is it? Has the book changed the way you view the needs of the people touched by adoption in your life?
13. On pages 56 & 57 and in her DNA song, the author makes it clear that she feels the fact that adopted people are the only U.S. citizens unable to routinely obtain their birth information raises significant human rights concerns, particularly considering the fact that knowledge of medical history can be life saving. To hear the author singing about this issue go to http://www.youtube.com/alisonlarkin or google Alison Larkin DNA Song. After reading the book and hearing the song, how do you feel about this issue?
14. Compare the English and American minor characters in the book.
15. How does Pippa change from the beginning of the book to the end?
Author Q & A:
In what way are you and the main character, Pippa Dunn, similar? And in what way are you different?
Pippa has long red hair, and is achingly beautiful. I have mid-length blonde hair and can look quite cute on a good day. Neither Pippa nor I care about what we’re wearing and we are both impulsive and chronically untidy. Like Pippa I was adopted in America as an infant and raised all over the world by tidy, loving English parents. Like Pippa I adore my adoptive parents despite the fact that we are very different.
Like Pippa, when I found my birth parents – who are free-spirited and artistic Americans – it answered key questions about myself. It also brought me closer to my adoptive parents, as is usually the case.
However, while Pippa’s emotional journey in many ways mirrors my own, I’m not a cabaret singer, my birth mother doesn’t run a company called “Art Buddies”, she doesn’t live in Georgia and my birth father isn’t a neo-conservative, enigmatic, politically involved business man. The mysterious Nick, who seduces Pippa via email, didn’t exist in my life – although he may have existed in my dreams. My Dad isn’t short, my Mum isn’t blonde, I don’t have a non-adopted sister, a dog called Boris or a penchant for fig newtons. The list goes on and on and on. In other words, it’s fiction.
You were a classical actress and playwright in England. Soon after meeting your birth mother you became a stand-up comic in New York. How did this happen?
A few weeks after meeting my birth parents, in the throes of “I’ve just found out I’m really an American” euphoria, I found myself in New York City, I stood up at a comedy club and, in my very English accent, I said “Hallo. My name is Alison Larkin and I come from Bald Mountain, Tennessee.” The audience laughed. I didn’t know anyone else in New York and they felt like friends, so I started talking to them about I could talk to about what had just happened in my life. I quickly discovered that the beauty of stand-up comedy is that you can say anything you want, as long as you make it funny.
When people found out that I was telling the truth about meeting my birth parents, they’d ask questions like ‘what was it like meeting your ‘real’ parents?’ And “Why would someone from a happy adoptive family want to do something like that?” My one woman show – a combination of theatre and stand-up – was my answer to both these questions, plus a good excuse to crack lots of jokes about England and America.
D: So with young children and a busy speaking and performing career, how and why did you write a 350 page novel?
There’s only so much you can do in seventy-five minutes on stage, and the show only skimmed the surface of the bigger, funnier, more authentic story I knew I wanted to tell one day.
People have no idea of the huge internal and external obstacles that face adopted people who decide to try to find their birth parents. Instead of being seen as the heroes they truly are, in today’s culture adopted people tend to be portrayed as victims at best or serial killers at worst. (Or they’re just presented as rather blah – like the adoptee in Mike Leigh’s otherwise excellent film Secrets and Lies, which told the birthmother’s story authentically and sympathetically – and presented the adoptee as completely together and unaffected by what I knew to be an intense, life-changing experience for myself, and other adopted people I know.)
I was completely fed up with what seemed to me to be a lack of empathy and understanding for what the adoption and reunion journey might be like for the adopted person themselves. I had a growing sense that if I could create an appealing, funny, authentic, vulnerable adopted heroine/narrator – and take the reader with her on her journey in an entertaining, accessible way – people might start to really ‘get’ what it might be like, from an adopted person’s point of view. I started with the premise of my autobiographical one woman show and jumped off into fiction from there. Instead of presenting the adoptee as yet another victim, I wanted to create an authentic, accessible adopted heroine at the centre of the kind of book I like to read.
D: And what kind is that?
The kind that keeps you up at night because you have to know what’s going to happen next! I don’t have time to read much now I have kids. When I do read I’m either on a plane or about to go to sleep, so a book has to totally grip me from page one if I’m going to have a chance of finishing it. It also has to have short chapters!
How do your parents, birth and adoptive, feel about the book?
My English parents have ‘accidentally’ left copies of The English American in hotel rooms while on holiday in Singapore, France and Scotland. My birth father slips the cover of The English American over whatever book he is reading when traveling on airplanes. When the book was featured in Vogue, my birth mother marched the magazine into bookstores all over the south and showed it to bookstore owners so they could be sure not to run out of stock.
Mum does not express any fear when Pippa decides to go off to find her birth mother. Why did you write her that way?
I wanted to portray an adoptive mother who puts her child’s needs before her own. The English mother in the novel, like my own adoptive mother, is a wise and inherently unselfish person. Instead of making Pippa feel even more guilty than she does already, she gives her vulnerable, overloaded daughter what she truly needs to grow up – i.e. the emotional space to go on her journey. This is, to me, an act of genuine love and it plays a large part in finally enabling Pippa to come into her own. I have heard from many adoptive parents who tell me they have found her example to be helpful and inspiring.
What kind of reactions have you had from members of the adoption community?
Adoptive parents tell me they no longer feel threatened by the thought of their son or daughter going to find their birth parents. Birth mothers tell me the book helped them understand just how much the child they relinquished will have to integrate after a reunion – and why this may take years. And I have heard from thousands of adopted people of all different cultural backgrounds who tell me that Pippa is ‘them’.
Is the way Pippa approaches her love life at the beginning of the book typical of adopted people?
I can’t speak for everybody of course, but I have heard from many adopted people of all different cultural and ethnic backgrounds who tell me they strongly relate to the fear of rejection that prevents Pippa from being able to fully trust her early boyfriends. Like many of my non-adopted readers who experienced some kind of abandonment in childhood, they find hope in the fact that once Pippa finds the truth, which leads to the uncovering of her authentic self, she is finally able to love without fear.
Were you hesitant to meet your birth parents? Why did you wait until you were 28?
As Pippa says at the start of the novel, “I think everyone should be adopted. That way you can meet your birth parents when you’re old enough to cope with them”
It’s a joke, but there’s truth in the second line. It’s a huge thing for any adopted person to even think about and not something I felt anywhere near ready to deal with emotionally until I had dealt with the pesky task of growing up.
Do you have any regrets either way?
I certainly don’t regret finding my birth parents any more than Pippa does. However, I do regret the fact that I did not have adequate professional help at the time. I feel so strongly about the importance of this, I’ve put a comprehensive adoption support referral page on www.alisonlarkin.com, to help adopted people who are even thinking about embarking on this challenging journey. The page also includes referrals for adoptive parents, and birth parents.
How has your sense of humor helped you through all the revelations of being adopted and then with meeting your birth parents?
I rely on my sense of humor as much as I rely on my right arm and my eyesight. When you can laugh in the midst of even the most painful of situations, it releases something. It helps you through.
At what age did you recognize that you had talents as a writer/comedian/actor?
I’ve written and performed ever since I can remember. When I was seven I performed My Fair Lady in a drafty bathroom in Yorkshire one wet summer holiday afternoon for my parents and their friends. (We were in the bathroom because the farmhouse didn’t have heating except for a heated towel rail in the bathroom, thus it was the warmest room in the house.) This memory – altered to make it fit the story – made it into the book.
Why did you seek out your birth parents? Do you have an ongoing relationship with them?
I sought out my birth parents because, like PIppa, I wanted to reassure them that I’d had a happy life and because I had questions about myself and my origins that only they could answer.
Thankfully they were open to contact and 100% available when I needed them to be. They helped me understand and value the parts of me that were so very different from my adoptive parents. Even more importantly, I no longer have to say ‘I don’t know, I was adopted’ when a doctor asks me for my medical history – something that turned out to be critical when it came to the birth to my first child.
I have the greatest respect for my birth parents, but they didn’t parent me day to day, so the word ‘parent’ doesn’t really feel right for me. I think of them more like friends. While I remain in occasional contact with them, it is my parents in England who I think of as my ‘parents’, who my children think of as their grandparents and who I am on the phone to all the time and plan family vacations with.
How do you cope on July 4th?
I’m never quite sure whether I should celebrate or mourn the shrinking of the British Empire. So generally I wear black and eat a hot dog.
If you could pick one thing that Pippa learns in the book and pass it on to your children, what would it be?
As Pippa’s dying Southern Grandfather says, “Welcome the difficulties, ‘cos it’s them you learn from.”
If you could leave your readers with one thing, what would it be?
British chocolate.
What do you love most about living in America?
The fact that it is full encouraging, optimistic people who say “Go for it!” as often as folks back in England said “Ooooh, I wouldn’t try and do that if I were you.”
Are you planning a new book? If so, what is it about?
Yes! I am hard at work on my second novel.
My new heroine, Annie Perry, fled to America years before the story begins because of something that happened to her in England – we find out what during the course of the book. She’s older than Pippa – a witty, slightly eccentric Miss Marple type and she gets the love story, which is pretty epic and directly affected by one of the secrets at the heart of the book.
One of the other main characters is a fiercely independent seventeen-year-old American girl who was conceived through anonymous egg donation and finds herself in need of Annie’s help.
What would you say is the major difference between English and American women?
American women will tell you they hate at least one thing about the way they look. English woman will feel just as insecure about it, but won’t admit it to anyone. You have to go to India or China to find a woman who is genuinely content with the way she looks – perhaps because she lives in a culture that values the wisdom that comes with age far more than weight gain or wrinkles.
Q: Do you consider yourself English or American?
I consider myself an American with a British accent, and a Brit with American enthusiasm levels.
3) Some ideas from Alison on how you might enhance your book club.
I come from a performing background. When the comedy is working, you know it, because the audience laughs. When the story is moving the audience, you can hear sniffles right there in the room with you. Writing a novel is quite different. You work on it for months and months and eventually people read it, but you have no idea what they’re thinking or feeling unless they tell you!
I love hearing from book clubs a) because it’s great fun and b) because it always gives me a new perspective on what I have written. To invite me to phone into your book club, or let me know what your book club thought of the book, go to my website and shoot me an email.
I have been delighted to hear from book clubs who have discussed the book over a cup of English tea. After all, T.E.A. could be seen as an acronym for The English American
You can find clear instructions on how not to make a cup of tea on page 94. Here are a few updates on Pippa’s how to suggestions.
Pippa’s Perfect Pot of Tea
. Put the kettle on. When it whistles at you, pour half cup or so of the boiling water into your teapot (a Brown Betty or glazed china ideally), twirling it round inside the pot before pouring it away. While you are doing this, treat yourself to a piece of chocolate, Cadbury’s ideally, and hum one of Pippa’s favorite songs from the book.
. Dole out one heaped teaspoon of tea leaves – Earl Grey, Lapsang or Darjeeling – one for each person and one for the pot, into the warmed teapot. The kettle will have reached a cheerful boil by this time, so pour the water over the tea. Take care that the water is not long boiling; over boiled water results in a foul tasting concoction that could upset your friends.
. Let the tea brew for anything from three to six minutes, but no longer, (see above.)
. Give the tea a good stir and pour it, not forgetting the tea strainer to catch leaves otherwise you find that people spend more time picking the leaves out from between their teeth than discussing my book. If you take your tea with milk, you should add it to the cup, cold and fresh, before pouring the tea.
With the tea you might consider serving genuine British delicacies! An excellent place to purchase these at a reasonable price is www.britishgiftbaskets.com.Their products include, but are not limited to, Typhoo tea, Scone mix, strawberry jam, chocolate digestive biscuits, hobnobs, maltesers, crunchies, chocolate buttons and marmalade. The president of this company is my husband, who just happens to bear a startling resemblance to one of the men in The English American. Guess which one!
If you, unlike myself or Pippa, are a woman with culinary energy, you might like to go all the way and serve the tea with toast and home made marmalade.
Here’s my Dad’s prized recipe for homemade marmalade, taught to him when he was a boy by his Scottish cousin Janie.
SEVILLE ORANGE MARMALADE
You will need:
Large stainless pan – for the quantities below I use one of 7 liters.
4lb Seville oranges
2 lemons
8 lb white sugar
8 pints water
(These quantities can be halved if necessary)
Fill pan with the water
Cut the oranges and lemons in half, extract juice, pips and pith. Add juice to water and tie pips and pith in a muslin bag.
Cut up the peel either by hand or in a food processor
Add peel and muslin bag to water and simmer gently until peel is tender – about 2 hours.
Take out muslin bag and discard contents
Add sugar, stirring until dissolved to avoid sticking and burning
Boil rapidly (“rolling boil”) until setting point is reached – about 20 minutes. Setting point can be tested either by seeing if mixture falls as a curtain from wooden spoon or by putting small amount in saucer and if the surface crinkles, setting point is reached.
Meanwhile, heat clean jars. Leave marmalade to stand in pan for 5-10 minutes then fill jars. Put on waxed discs and add covers when cool.
To enhance your book club, go to Alison Larkin’s You Tube Channel where you can watch:-
1. Alison Larkin singing her DNA song at the end of a keynote speech – echoing themes from The English American
2. The ladies (and gentleman) of the North West Book club discussing Alison’s book on TV AM
3. An interview with Alison from Turn Here films.
Marie Taluba created this English American crossword puzzle! for her Hunterdon County, New Jersey book club. Enjoy!
The English American Audiobook
Read by Alison Larkin
Now Available with Bonus Material!
AudioFile Earphones Award Winner
Author and narrator Alison Larkin lights up the earphones with her portrayal of Pippa Dunn, an English young woman who discovers that her birth parents are Americans. Pippa decides to go to America to meet them and ends up finding herself—and true love. Larkin’s heartfelt narration conveys Pippa’s mixed up feelings of confusion and guilt—as well as the story’s humor. Larkin moves delightfully between the various British and American accents. With gentle humor, she pokes fun at both American and British cultures while making it clear she loves them both. This audio experience is like watching a great romantic comedy. Have the tissues ready at the end—the romance is that good! —AudioFile (May 2012)
Learn More about The English American Audiobook
Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
©2008 Alison Larkin ℗ 2018 Alison Larkin Presents
Buy The English American
The English American is available at your favorite e-retailers and local bookstores. Links are provided below to assist you.
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