Sopel's title about 'strange' America to BBC Books

BBC Books has acquired a new title about modern America in the wake of the US election, by BBC North America editor Jon Sopel.

If Only They Didn’t Speak English: Adventures in America - the Strangest Country on Earth will give Sopel's "unique perspective" on the US as "a truly foreign land" by combining his political expertise with his own stories on the ground.

Sopel has travelled aboard Air Force One, interviewed president Barack Obama and seen first-hand Donald Trump’s billion-dollar empire. He has "a ring side seat" for the 2016 presidential election. He was also on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri as the riots took hold, and has visited gun shows "where lethal weapons are exhibited and sold like DIY tools". 

According to Ebury, his book aims to "answer our questions about a country that once stood for the grandest of dreams but which is now mired in a storm of political extremism, racial division, and increasingly perverse beliefs". 

Sopel has been a BBC correspondent for more than 20 years. 

Yvonne Jacob, BBC Books commissioning editor, bought UK Commonwealth Rights (inc Canada) from Rory Scarfe at Furniss Lawton. 

Sopel said: "Has there even been a crazier, more bizarre, unsettling and fascinating time to be in this country that we think we know so well? Turns out to be a lot stranger place to live in than ever I thought imaginable. The upside: it's never dull, and the down is that I am never off planes traveling across this vast continent trying to explain it."

Jacob said: "We are thrilled to be working with Jon on this seminal look at modern America in the wake of one of the most controversial elections in living memory. Jon paints a fascinating and insightful portrait of American life and politics seen through British eyes."

If Only They Didn’t Speak English: Adventures in America - the Strangest Country on Earth will publish on 5th September 2017 in royal hardback priced £20.