Thanks. That's my feeling as well.

The trouble with living languages is that they never stay bloomin' still!

I have not read all the way through this thread so forgive me if I repeat something, but I think the "If I were..." construction is alive and well across the pond. I cannot say "If I was...." and to me it sounds flat and awful.... (Unless of course it's a character and consistent with that's character's other speec da da da da, but I am addressing general usage, and for me it is everyday register.

Just getting my two cents in.... (Cents of course being currency elsewhere!

And I agree re who / whom -- it sounds forced in any conversation, and the speaker is almost certainly monitoring for correct usage.

Ani

That's interesting, Ani. I know a great deal of the vocab was changed for the US and Canadian editions of TBMH (though the was/were thing didn't crop up in that novel).