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Hey, people, this is sort of random, but I am in need of a beta-reader who is from England. It’s a troublesome situation: I’m trying to write a book set in England sometime in the future, but I am American. (No, I will not change the setting unless I absolutely have to, and even then I will be very sad about it.) As I’m writing, I will need some sort of fact checker, someone who can answer my totally random questions, to make sure I’m not terribly misrepresenting a country I’ve never visited. So, if anyone is British, has a friend in England, or knows a thing or two about the culture and government, give me a shoutout.
Oh, my. I’m so sorry I can’t help you, but I know the situation. My WIP’s two main characters are from England and the story is in the future (though only for the first chapter before they get taken back to the 1300s).
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I’m afraid I don’t know anyone in England, but I do have some good friends in Scotland; I’m not sure if that would be close enough or not. If you can’t find anything better and want me to ask them about it, let me know. 🙂
"Courage is action in spite of fear."
@corissa-maiden-of-praise You know what, Scotland might be close enough- isn’t it technically under British rule? ! I’ll tag a few more people, but if they’re interested, that would be quite helpful, as some of the story may actually take place in Scotland.
@daeus Wow, that’s tricky, too- you’d need a history expert. I know a bit about the England of the Middle Ages, but not the modern one. 🙂(Not great at tagging, but I’ll give it a try) I’m looking for British beta-readers.
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I actually was just in England this summer! I have some British friends, who I’m sure would be happy to help you out. Also, I do know a bit about British culture and accents (I’ve done British accents for some plays before), and I’d be happy to answer any questions that I can answer. 🙂@gretald Really? That would be perfect! Can you ask them if they’d be willing to suffer interrogation by a slightly weird American?
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Sorry, Hannah! Unfortunately, I am not British. I have never even been outside of the U.S.
Sorry, I can’t be of any assistance. 🙁 I wish I knew some British people, though. 😀
That’s okay- I think I might have found some helpers anyway. Maybe we should start a forum for locating the beta-readers for particular WIPs. Is that a thing yet?
@hannah-krynicki
Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond! Life has been crazy. 🙂
Anyway, I can definitely ask my British friends. In the mean time, I’d be happy to try to answer any questions you ask, but if I can’t answer them, I’ll definitely try to hook you up with them. 🙂Thanks @gretald. I don’t know if you could answer my first one: how does the court system in England compare with the American one?
Alrighty @hannah-krynicki. I am SO sorry about the long wait again. I sincerely hope I didn’t hold up your writing process. Why don’t you send me all your questions, I’ll answer the ones I can, and send the rest to my British friends? That is, assuming you still need the questions answered. 😀 Again, I’m SO sorry about the wait.
No problem @gretald. It gave me time to make a list of things that have randomly popped up in my outlining. There will probably be more, but for now here is the first round of interrogation. Thanks for helping me out!
-If you want to meet with someone to have a good chat, do you go to a coffee shop or some other place?
-Very roughly, how does the court system work- that is, what are the tiers of courts?
-Are there two-year universities (we call them community colleges)?
-How long is a school day (for a college student)?
-What are the current political parties? How politically involved is the average citizen?
-Do people really drink as much tea as Sherlock would have us think?@hannah-krynicki
So I had a post typed out to respond to you earlier, and somehow my computer lost it. And then I forgot to respond. My apologies. 🙂
Anyway, here are some of your questions answered:-If you want to meet with someone to have a good chat, do you go to a coffee shop or some other place?
I’m sure there are coffee shops in England, but what you see most often are pubs. In France, cafes are the norm, and in England, there are pubs everywhere. So if you wanted to go somewhere to hang out with friends, I assume you’d probably go to a local pub (or a normal restaurant). The classic pub dish is “fish and chips” (something I learned in England: french fries are “chips,” and actual chips are “crisps”), and they do tend to serve alcohol at pubs. Another amazing pub dish I had while in England was called a lamb burger (basically a burger that’s made of lamb instead of beef). AMAZING. Also, one pub dessert is pudding, which is basically a square slice of cake (no idea why they call it pudding). 😛
-Very roughly, how does the court system work- that is, what are the tiers of courts?
I think that the British court system is quite similar to our own. Maybe this website will help you in your research.
-What are the current political parties? How politically involved is the average citizen?
I have no idea about political parties in England, but here’s a link to a help-looking website about political parties in England. It looks like there are many more political parties in England than there are in the U.S. Anyway, I would say that the average person is pretty politically involved. Obviously, about bigger issues (like Brexit), pretty much every British person knew what was going on. However, about smaller political issues, I guess it just depends. It seems like the country folks are less politically involved (unless a political issue could change their way of life). Also, many of the British people I met when I was in England actually knew quite a bit about American politics.
-Do people really drink as much tea as Sherlock would have us think?
Well, not as much anymore. Of course, 4 o’clock used to be tea-time in England, but now, people don’t have a designated “tea-time” anymore. There are still many tea parlors (or should I use the British spelling: parlours? 😛 ) around. When we were in England, we went to a tea parlor and it was packed (that could have partly been due to the fact that it was in Oxford, though). They served a “cream tea” there, which consists of scones with or without raisins spread with clotted cream and various jams (strawberry, raspberry, etc.) and tea with milk and sugar (if you wanted them). So, though there isn’t a specific tea-time in England any more, it still seems like tea is very much a part of British culture (as well as rum 😉 ).
Hope this was helpful!
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