This paper examines the changes that may occur in the text of a British work of literature or any piece of work already translated into British English -with or without the author's awareness or agreement- when it is published in the United States. This reflects the publishers' biased vision both of British culture and of the capacity of their reading public to accept real or alleged cultural differences. The cultural gap between the New World and the Old is considered through the analysis of British-English and American-English translations of the Asterix comic strip albums, as well as through the American adaptations of some major authors like Agatha Christie or George Orwell.