Osbert Lancaster fu un satirico e vignettista britannico la cui opera offrì commenti arguti e civilizzati sulla società britannica. La sua arte, caratterizzata da un umorismo sottile e una profonda comprensione della natura umana, si concentrò sulla satira sociale e architettonica. Attraverso le sue popolari vignette, incluso l'innovativo formato 'Pocket Cartoon', Lancaster rappresentò in modo simpatico e con garbato divertimento la società britannica, in particolare le sue classi superiori. Il suo lavoro fornì sollievo comico e prospettiva durante periodi difficili, affermandolo come un critico colto delle debolezze umane.
An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy
Nancy Mitford's "The English Aristocracy" in 1955 sparked off the great debate about U and non-U usage. The articles collected here include contributions from Alan Ross, Evelyn Waugh, "Strix", Christopher Sykes, and John Betjeman.
Parkinson's Law states that 'work expands to fill the time available'. While strenuously denied by management consultants, bureaucrats and efficiency experts, the law is borne out by disinterested observation of any organization. The book goes far beyond its famous theorem, though. The author goes on to explain how to meet the most important people at a social gathering and why, as a matter of mathematical certainty, the time spent debating an issue is inversely proportional to its objective importance. Justly famous for more than forty years, Parkinson's Law is at once a bracingly cynical primer on the reality of human organization, and an innoculation against the wilful optimism to which we as a species are prone.