Only In America

£16.99

When Matt Frei arrived in America as the BBC’s Washington correspondent in 2002 he thought he had made a terrible mistake. Until then he had reported on the groping hand of the largely benign American colossus from the far corners of the world. But in “Only In America” he has confronted the task of explaining the contradictions of a nation embodied in its capital, with a reluctant family in tow.

Observing American politics from within the Washington Beltway, where the ceaseless theatre of power overshadows everything else, Matt Frei brings to the capital of the most powerful nation on earth some of his own wit and reporting.

From the eye of the political storm of Katrina to the $2,000 dollar-a-plate fundraising dinners which serve only hotdogs, he tells the story of the country he now calls home. As a nation that flummoxed him with the simple task of getting a driving licence and brought him face to face with the most controversial president of modern times, it is a love affair that has developed more like an arranged marriage, whose beginnings were prosaic but which now has blossomed into something precious and deeply rewarding.

With his unique perspective on how the American mind works, “Only In America” is a wonderfully entertaining dissection of the most powerful nation on Earth.