The Life of Slang by Julie Coleman is the type of book I adore, because it covers a subject I am passionate about, the use of language.
A quote from the book: "Slang is a subject that provokes strong emotions. If you use slang, you run the risk of being judged crass, uneducated, stupid, or hopelessly out of date, but the rewards are great: used correctly, slang will easy your entry into the social circles you want to mix in, increase your attractiveness to the opposite sex, and even save your life."
In this very interesting and linguistically important book Julie Coleman (who is a professor of English Language at the University of Leicester) traces the development of English slang words from the earliest know records to some pretty modern examples by way of the Tweets of today.
It examines how slang is used, why it is used and where it is used. It looks at how slang developed amongst the English-speaking populations of the world.
As part of her research tools Julie Coleman has gone through the records of the Old Bailey and searched through the electronic archives of newspapers which, she points out, have provided a wealth of new information and facts about historical slang. Blogs and other online sites and tweets are a very valuable source of information for studying contemporary slang.
The Life of Slang does not make the mistake of some academic works, it does not assume that the reader is an old hand in the field. It covers slang from the Old English period down through the ages to the modern world.
It's an entertaining and informative read (though based on impeccable scholarly sources) and will teach you exactly what people are saying. You will know the "word on the street and on the tweet". It will teach you some new and interesting words. Some of which are best not used in polite society! Unless you really want ot, of course!
The use of slang can be a jolly good show, make you seem the cat's pyjamas, which might make someone ROFL!
The book will be published on 22 March in hardback by the Oxford University Press at a modest £14.99 or $27.95. Although it should be available for a discount through the That's Books online bookshop.
Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Monday, 13 February 2012
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Charles Dickens's Networks
Despite the somewhat wonky title (I was always taught that if it was something 'owned' by Dickens, it should be rendered thus: Dickens') this is a extremely readable and very interesting book by Jonathan H. Grossman.
It is an innovative examination of the novels of Charles Dickens, their interesting, multilevel and criss-crossing plots and how the burgeoning transport networks of that time impacted on the novelists of the Victorian era.
It's an original work, which employs a novel approach to literary history with a thought-provoking look at the 19th century novel from the perspective of the transport networks of that time.
It theorises how passenger networks operate and how narrative forms a part of imagining public transport networks.
The author points out that at the same time as Dickens was writing his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, the first railway line in London opened for business.
Charles Dickens's Networks examines the rise of the global, high-speed passenger transport networks of the 19th century and the important impact they made on the works of Charles Dickens.
It looks at the advent of the stagecoach network, the railways and ocean-going steam liners and how they made transport easy for everyone, but also more affordable, too. Journeys that once seemed unattainable could be made in less than a day. And the strict timetables of the railway companies made such travel predictable and reliable, in the main part.
The railway timetables also changed how time was looked at. Before the advent of the railway, each town had its own, separate time. If it was noon in Birmingham it might be 12.15 in London and 12.10 in Manchester. But to avoid railway accidents the whole rail network must run at precisely the same time, so the standardised railway time was introduced which very quickly became the same standardised time for the whole country. We were all synchronised and are to this very day.
Grossman takes a literary microscope to three of the so-called road novels of Charles Dickens and uses them as a sort of a lens to examine the history of how the public transport network changed how we perceive time and how this impacted on community and how the novelist played a key part in bringing this all together and helping us to have some understanding of it.
It is an extremely important book for Dickens lovers, people who enjoy finding out about how the Victorian era is still impacting on our lives today and students of transport history.
The book will cost £25 in hardback and is published on 1 March.
In association with the Oxford University Press, readers of That's Books can have FREE access to the life of Charles Dickens in the prestigious Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Just visit www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/7599.html This free access will last for six months.
It is an innovative examination of the novels of Charles Dickens, their interesting, multilevel and criss-crossing plots and how the burgeoning transport networks of that time impacted on the novelists of the Victorian era.
It's an original work, which employs a novel approach to literary history with a thought-provoking look at the 19th century novel from the perspective of the transport networks of that time.
It theorises how passenger networks operate and how narrative forms a part of imagining public transport networks.
The author points out that at the same time as Dickens was writing his first novel, The Pickwick Papers, the first railway line in London opened for business.
Charles Dickens's Networks examines the rise of the global, high-speed passenger transport networks of the 19th century and the important impact they made on the works of Charles Dickens.
It looks at the advent of the stagecoach network, the railways and ocean-going steam liners and how they made transport easy for everyone, but also more affordable, too. Journeys that once seemed unattainable could be made in less than a day. And the strict timetables of the railway companies made such travel predictable and reliable, in the main part.
The railway timetables also changed how time was looked at. Before the advent of the railway, each town had its own, separate time. If it was noon in Birmingham it might be 12.15 in London and 12.10 in Manchester. But to avoid railway accidents the whole rail network must run at precisely the same time, so the standardised railway time was introduced which very quickly became the same standardised time for the whole country. We were all synchronised and are to this very day.
Grossman takes a literary microscope to three of the so-called road novels of Charles Dickens and uses them as a sort of a lens to examine the history of how the public transport network changed how we perceive time and how this impacted on community and how the novelist played a key part in bringing this all together and helping us to have some understanding of it.
It is an extremely important book for Dickens lovers, people who enjoy finding out about how the Victorian era is still impacting on our lives today and students of transport history.
The book will cost £25 in hardback and is published on 1 March.
In association with the Oxford University Press, readers of That's Books can have FREE access to the life of Charles Dickens in the prestigious Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Just visit www.oxforddnb.com/public/dnb/7599.html This free access will last for six months.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
The Oxford Book of Parodies edited by John Gross
The Oxford Book of Parodies edited by John Gross is what it says on the tin. A collection of parodies, edited by the late John Gross and published by the Oxford University Press.
Nobody is safe from the mordant wit of the satirical parodist! There are well in excess of 120 victims,if one can use that word in this context. The parodied range from Geoffrey Chaucer to John Dryden, from Swift to Lord Chesterfield, from Wordsworth to Cobbett and in more recent times from Clive James to J. K. Rowling and from Amis (that's Martin, not Kingsley) to Leonard Cohen.
Who are the parodists? old hands at the genre like the irrepressible Sellar and Yeatman, with their witty and well-educated parodies of history teaching (1066 and All That) appear in the book as do others who might not be so well-known. There is a parody of Virginia Woolf by Mark Crick, in which he imagines how she would have handled a recipe for a dish involving black cherries and a parody by J. C. Squire of a poem in the style of G. K. Chesterton.
Some of the parodies are splendid and really do capture, but in a slightly warped form, the true essence of the subject who is being parodied, yet some seem to miss the mark and in some instances quite badly, too. The parody of Chesterton by Squire sadly falls into the latter category.
The book is in two parts, part one starting with Anglo-Saxon and Medieval. Ezra Pound's take on Summer is Icumen In is worthy, although perhaps slightly too long, whilst Murie Song by A. Y. Campbell based on the same song is, to be honest, appallingly bad, especially when one considers that he was a poet in his own right!
Part two contains a collection of nursery rhymes, ripostes, stage and screen, and so forth.
This book will keep you amused, bemused and perhaps just a tad confused for many, many hours. It is published in paperback at £9.99 or $17.95. It is, of course, available through the That's Books book shop.
Sadly the editor of the anthology of parodies died in January of this year.
Nobody is safe from the mordant wit of the satirical parodist! There are well in excess of 120 victims,if one can use that word in this context. The parodied range from Geoffrey Chaucer to John Dryden, from Swift to Lord Chesterfield, from Wordsworth to Cobbett and in more recent times from Clive James to J. K. Rowling and from Amis (that's Martin, not Kingsley) to Leonard Cohen.
Who are the parodists? old hands at the genre like the irrepressible Sellar and Yeatman, with their witty and well-educated parodies of history teaching (1066 and All That) appear in the book as do others who might not be so well-known. There is a parody of Virginia Woolf by Mark Crick, in which he imagines how she would have handled a recipe for a dish involving black cherries and a parody by J. C. Squire of a poem in the style of G. K. Chesterton.
Some of the parodies are splendid and really do capture, but in a slightly warped form, the true essence of the subject who is being parodied, yet some seem to miss the mark and in some instances quite badly, too. The parody of Chesterton by Squire sadly falls into the latter category.
The book is in two parts, part one starting with Anglo-Saxon and Medieval. Ezra Pound's take on Summer is Icumen In is worthy, although perhaps slightly too long, whilst Murie Song by A. Y. Campbell based on the same song is, to be honest, appallingly bad, especially when one considers that he was a poet in his own right!
Part two contains a collection of nursery rhymes, ripostes, stage and screen, and so forth.
This book will keep you amused, bemused and perhaps just a tad confused for many, many hours. It is published in paperback at £9.99 or $17.95. It is, of course, available through the That's Books book shop.
Sadly the editor of the anthology of parodies died in January of this year.
InteractBooks Releases Bill the Fish it's Latest Interactive Book for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
In the interactive children’s e-book, Bill the Fish, graphic artist Brett Curzon invites young readers to join him in a delightful journey under the sea, where Bill rides his bike and interacts (virtually!) with a wide range of quirky sea friends. Against a backdrop of beautiful acrylic paintings, the book contains a series of interactive elements and hidden treasures on each page, but with one simple message: Being different is okay.
“Bill the Fish celebrates individuality,” explains Curzon. “It teaches children through a series of wildly differing aquatic characters that we are all meant to be different. It’s okay to be yourself. Quirks and all.”
Curzon had developed a hard copy of the story in 2007 as part of a homework assignment for a graphic design class. He was to create something that could be sold, so he published Bill and brought 100 copies to a local artisan market. The books sold out within a few hours, and Curzon realised that he would need a larger platform for his creativity.
“I began searching for companies that could create an app for me,” said Curzon. “It quickly came to my attention that most companies were going to charge me a large sum of money and heavy residuals in order to send my project off to be coded by programmers in a far-away country.”
With more research, Curzon came across InteractBooks, which features the InteractBuilder tool: “I immediately recognized that there were two distinct advantages to working with InteractBooks. For one, the tool was easy to use and allowed me to retain control over the output; I was able to focus on the creative side without worrying about the technical aspect. And two, the team at InteractBooks made a concerted effort to help me however they could. It’s really more than a company; it’s a community.”
The Background
“My original intent was to write something for my kids,” explains Curzon, whose three children range in age from 10 to 14. “I wanted to help them become more confident and help them deal with challenges in school. When I developed Bill and his relationship to the other characters, I wanted to make the point that they’re all different. Feeling out of place is part of everyday life.”
Curzon is no stranger to the “fish out of water” feeling. A native Australian, he was deeply impressed by the blatant discrimination aimed at his grandmother, who was an aboriginal at a time when that wasn’t accepted: “She was treated quite terribly because of her colour.”
After moving away from home at age 16, Curzon went through an important period of discovery during his early adulthood, exploring a number of countries on several continents. Over the course of six years, Curzon found himself in Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, Fiji, Samoa, Malayisa, Mexico, Canada, and the United States (California). He learned an important lesson along the way.
“I made friends with people who were living in abject poverty, including a close friend who lived with his mother in a cardboard box,” Curzon recalls. “They are the happiest people you meet. They aren’t concerned with accumulating wealth; they are family-orientated.”
He married his soul mate, Tracy, and moved back to Australia, settling into his role as a construction worker, despite what he describes as “miserable” circumstances. Curzon was forever changed when he was injured on a construction site where he had been a day labourer for eight years. Once a sponsored surfer, he was devastated that he could no longer surf, and he was forced to make a career change that didn’t involve manual labour.
Curzon was accepted into a graphic design program at The Hunter Institute of Technology with the help of a little white lie: “Ironically, I was applying to a school of technology, but I had never actually turned on a computer prior to joining the programme,” he recalled. Nevertheless, he completed the two-year programme successfully, ranking second in a class of 60 students.
A lifelong painter and visual artist, Curzon found graphic design a manageable trade, more in line with his creative instincts than the construction field. Yet, designing CD covers and returning commissioned art remained a profitable trade and not a source of enjoyment.
With the unflappable support of his family, Curzon discovered that writing children’s books was the best antidote for dealing with the fast-paced nature of the world. “Kids don’t complicate things. Writing these books reminds me that there’s a beautiful simplicity to life, and it’s just beneath the surface.”
The importance of individuality is equally simple, but not always obvious. “If a diver were to judge an oyster by its shell on the outside, he might never discover the beautiful pearl inside,” Curzon relates. “I like to remind my young readers of the importance of this idea, so I sign their books with this message. I say: ‘Always look a little deeper.’”
About InteractBooks, LLC.
InteractBooks provides tools for non-programmers to create high-quality e-books, and other media in an interactive format that make effective use of touch-screen tablets and smartphone devices. Currently available for the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone devices, the app will soon be running on Android devices including the Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet. The app is also being ported to run on Windows Phone devices later this year.
The InteractBooks App is available as a free downloadfrom the Apple iTunes App Store. Browsing the InteractBooks Store directly from the App, users can download from a growing library of interactive children's e-books (also known as InteractBooks), there are a couple of free books available for download too.
The InteractBuilder is also a free software download which runs on Macs and Windows PC's that works in conjunction with the InteractBooks App allowing users to create their own interactive books. With the help of a comprehensive library of video tutorials and a network of technical support, the tool has become the most effective resource for children’s book authors, illustrators and presenters wishing to enter into the wonderful world of interactive media. In addition to featuring books in it's own interactive book store, InteractBooks also offers the ability to publish interactive books as stand alone apps. www.interactbooks.com
“Bill the Fish celebrates individuality,” explains Curzon. “It teaches children through a series of wildly differing aquatic characters that we are all meant to be different. It’s okay to be yourself. Quirks and all.”
Curzon had developed a hard copy of the story in 2007 as part of a homework assignment for a graphic design class. He was to create something that could be sold, so he published Bill and brought 100 copies to a local artisan market. The books sold out within a few hours, and Curzon realised that he would need a larger platform for his creativity.
“I began searching for companies that could create an app for me,” said Curzon. “It quickly came to my attention that most companies were going to charge me a large sum of money and heavy residuals in order to send my project off to be coded by programmers in a far-away country.”
With more research, Curzon came across InteractBooks, which features the InteractBuilder tool: “I immediately recognized that there were two distinct advantages to working with InteractBooks. For one, the tool was easy to use and allowed me to retain control over the output; I was able to focus on the creative side without worrying about the technical aspect. And two, the team at InteractBooks made a concerted effort to help me however they could. It’s really more than a company; it’s a community.”
The Background
“My original intent was to write something for my kids,” explains Curzon, whose three children range in age from 10 to 14. “I wanted to help them become more confident and help them deal with challenges in school. When I developed Bill and his relationship to the other characters, I wanted to make the point that they’re all different. Feeling out of place is part of everyday life.”
Curzon is no stranger to the “fish out of water” feeling. A native Australian, he was deeply impressed by the blatant discrimination aimed at his grandmother, who was an aboriginal at a time when that wasn’t accepted: “She was treated quite terribly because of her colour.”
After moving away from home at age 16, Curzon went through an important period of discovery during his early adulthood, exploring a number of countries on several continents. Over the course of six years, Curzon found himself in Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, Fiji, Samoa, Malayisa, Mexico, Canada, and the United States (California). He learned an important lesson along the way.
“I made friends with people who were living in abject poverty, including a close friend who lived with his mother in a cardboard box,” Curzon recalls. “They are the happiest people you meet. They aren’t concerned with accumulating wealth; they are family-orientated.”
He married his soul mate, Tracy, and moved back to Australia, settling into his role as a construction worker, despite what he describes as “miserable” circumstances. Curzon was forever changed when he was injured on a construction site where he had been a day labourer for eight years. Once a sponsored surfer, he was devastated that he could no longer surf, and he was forced to make a career change that didn’t involve manual labour.
Curzon was accepted into a graphic design program at The Hunter Institute of Technology with the help of a little white lie: “Ironically, I was applying to a school of technology, but I had never actually turned on a computer prior to joining the programme,” he recalled. Nevertheless, he completed the two-year programme successfully, ranking second in a class of 60 students.
A lifelong painter and visual artist, Curzon found graphic design a manageable trade, more in line with his creative instincts than the construction field. Yet, designing CD covers and returning commissioned art remained a profitable trade and not a source of enjoyment.
With the unflappable support of his family, Curzon discovered that writing children’s books was the best antidote for dealing with the fast-paced nature of the world. “Kids don’t complicate things. Writing these books reminds me that there’s a beautiful simplicity to life, and it’s just beneath the surface.”
The importance of individuality is equally simple, but not always obvious. “If a diver were to judge an oyster by its shell on the outside, he might never discover the beautiful pearl inside,” Curzon relates. “I like to remind my young readers of the importance of this idea, so I sign their books with this message. I say: ‘Always look a little deeper.’”
About InteractBooks, LLC.
InteractBooks provides tools for non-programmers to create high-quality e-books, and other media in an interactive format that make effective use of touch-screen tablets and smartphone devices. Currently available for the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone devices, the app will soon be running on Android devices including the Amazon Kindle Fire, Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet. The app is also being ported to run on Windows Phone devices later this year.
The InteractBooks App is available as a free downloadfrom the Apple iTunes App Store. Browsing the InteractBooks Store directly from the App, users can download from a growing library of interactive children's e-books (also known as InteractBooks), there are a couple of free books available for download too.
The InteractBuilder is also a free software download which runs on Macs and Windows PC's that works in conjunction with the InteractBooks App allowing users to create their own interactive books. With the help of a comprehensive library of video tutorials and a network of technical support, the tool has become the most effective resource for children’s book authors, illustrators and presenters wishing to enter into the wonderful world of interactive media. In addition to featuring books in it's own interactive book store, InteractBooks also offers the ability to publish interactive books as stand alone apps. www.interactbooks.com
Calling All Rugby Coaches And Players
Calling all Rugby coaches and players. Getting tired of the same old moves? Struggling to beat defences and need new ways to break down the opposition? Take a look at the latest book on attacking play, "Rugby Backs Moves", for inspiration.This new release (colour edition) talks you through a variety of plays, ranging from the classic switch to moves that really stretch defenders, with in-depth detail on all the moves and diagrammatic illustrations of how to perform them.
The book, "Rugby Backs Moves", is designed to give players and coaches some ideas for your back-line to try out, while if you already know any of the moves then the book gives you some very helpful ‘dos and don'ts'. It's an ideal companion for use on the training ground or in team meetings.
The book has received excellent reviews:- a "superb" and "easy to read" book, which "guides you through more than 50 different moves".
Check out the book and its reviews at www.facebook.com/pages/Rugby-Backs-Moves/140708799364831 or purchase on-line at www.authorsonline.co.uk/book/1034/Rugby_Backs_Moves/
'The Austerity Olympics' - When The Games Came To London In 1948
The 1948 London Olympics demonstrated what a fantastic Games could be organised on just £760,000 - and still make a profit. The main stadium was cleared of greyhound racing to allow great athletes such as Emil Zatopek and Fanny Blankers-Koen to thrill the indomitable Londoners who cheerfully overcame every obstacle, from food rationing to terrible weather.
Entertaining, revealing and highly-readable, this meticulously researched book is full of first-hand interviews, hilarious anecdotes, and spirited athletic feats. The Austerity Olympics is a fascinating book about an extraordinary event.
Published to coincide with BBC film based on the book - Bert & Dickie airing in May
Contains over 200 original interviews with entertaining anecdotes that make great material for review, extract and radio coverage.
Shortlisted for William Hill Sports Book of the Year
Janie Hampton has written over 15 books, from biography to fiction. She is the author of the critically acclaimed biography of Joyce Grenfell; and appears regularly on radio, in print and at literary festivals.
She is the leading authority on the social history of the Olympic Games in London and is Olympics Correspondent of The Oldie Magazine. She lives in Oxford.
The Austerity Olympics by Janie Hampton is published by Aurum Press on
20th February 2012 priced £8.99.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989
The Fall of the Berlin Wall The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989 is a very interesting book. It is edited by Jeffrey A. Engel and is a collection of essays on the subject, written by people who are acknowledged as experts in their fields. Chen Jian, holder of the Michael J. Zak chair of history for U.S. -Chinese relations, Cornell University; Melvyn P. Leffler, Edward Stettinius Professor of American History, University of Virginia; Sventlana Savranskaya, director of Russia Programs, National Security Archive, George Washington University; James J. Sheehan, Dickason Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Modern European History, Emeritus, Stanford University; William Taubman, Bertrand Snell Professor of Political Science, Amherst College.
Two of the most momentous events of the late 20th century were the construction of the Berlin Wall, the other was the demolition of that same wall.
The erudite and well-argued essays examines how the Berlin Wall came to be removed all at once in 1989, and why nobody had foreseen this epoch making event.
The book details how the events of the days and weeks leading up to the fall occurred, how a frightened and desperate DDR leader Erich Honecker ordered his troops to open fire on the generally good natured but vocal crowds of demonstrators that were protesting against Honecker's autocratic rule. They declined to accept his order. Something that would have been utterly unthinkable, even months earlier. The party sacked Honecker and thus was the beginning of the end of not only the cursed wall. but of the entire DDR itself.
The book points out that these results came about as a result of the changes that had swept through neighbouring Poland and Hungary. Soon, revolt and revolution took not only the Communist Party of East Germany but also the rest of the Warsaw Pact member states.
The book looks at what happened next, and raises issues about what could happen in the future in this, the Post Wall period.
This book is a must have for any serious student of political or social history.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at $19.95.
Two of the most momentous events of the late 20th century were the construction of the Berlin Wall, the other was the demolition of that same wall.
The erudite and well-argued essays examines how the Berlin Wall came to be removed all at once in 1989, and why nobody had foreseen this epoch making event.
The book details how the events of the days and weeks leading up to the fall occurred, how a frightened and desperate DDR leader Erich Honecker ordered his troops to open fire on the generally good natured but vocal crowds of demonstrators that were protesting against Honecker's autocratic rule. They declined to accept his order. Something that would have been utterly unthinkable, even months earlier. The party sacked Honecker and thus was the beginning of the end of not only the cursed wall. but of the entire DDR itself.
The book points out that these results came about as a result of the changes that had swept through neighbouring Poland and Hungary. Soon, revolt and revolution took not only the Communist Party of East Germany but also the rest of the Warsaw Pact member states.
The book looks at what happened next, and raises issues about what could happen in the future in this, the Post Wall period.
This book is a must have for any serious student of political or social history.
It is published by the Oxford University Press in paperback at $19.95.
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