Italian Affairs: English As A Funny Language

1977. It’s five years on from the events in Foreign Affairs. A new English Language Teaching text book by Graham Donaldson, Intercourse (he thinks it means ’conversation’), is about to be launched on an unsuspecting world by the august United Universities Press. Graham wants time off from teaching at World English Centre (WEC) for his first promotional tour ever, which will be in Italy. It gives his Director of Studies, Malcolm O’Reilly, an idea. He can go out to the major language teaching conference in Rome and promote WEC at the same time. Gloria, his wife, can accompany him and do a little sightseeing. Graham’s travels take him right around Italy with the UUP reps, the elegant Francesca and the punk-rocker from Blackpool, Luciana. How will the reclusive and bad-tempered Graham take to Italy? The food? The drink? The incessant history? The teachers? The large bottle of olive oil which he has to carry round from place to place? Then there’s Giles, his editor, tagging along to persuade him to become a full-time author. The issues all come to a head when they reach Rome.

Though chronologically the second in the series, it’s the fifth of the comedy series to be written. Readers of the later ones wanted to know just HOW the testy and irritable Graham managed to become world-famous.