Paul N. Bilton, The Perpetual Tourist: In Search of a Swiss Role (Bergli). A diary of an Englishman living in Switzerland, documenting the author’s various attempts to bridge the cultural divide. The author quote on the back says it all: “The British look for humour in everything; the Swiss are brought up not to expect it.”

Dianne Dicks (ed), Ticking Along With the Swiss and Ticking Along Too (Bergli). Entertaining collections of personal stories from travellers to Switzerland and various expats living and working there – light reading that offers a sidelong glance at the people and the culture.

Shirley Eu-Wong, Culture Shock! Switzerland (Kuperard). Slim, chatty trawl through the idiosyncracies of Swiss society, written more for arriving expats than tourists, though with handy bits and pieces for all.

David Hampshire, Living and Working in Switzerland (Survival). A complete rundown of rules and regulations for those planning to emigrate, either permanently or just for the winter ski-bum season, along with a raft of useful tips on how to avoid the worst of the bureaucracy.

Susan Tuttle, Inside Outlandish (Bergli). Brief little book that playfully tries to bridge the expat gap, explaining the Swiss to outsiders and outsiders to the Swiss.

Vitali Vitaliev, Little is the Light (Simon & Schuster). Subtitled “Nostalgic travels in the mini-states of Europe”, this is a trail through Luxembourg, San Marino, the Isle of Man, and various other statelets by an award-winning Russian journalist – the chapter on Liechtenstein is an especially witty and engaging portrait of the country, and one of the few to take the place at least halfway seriously.