Böcker av Susie Dent

'I love this book' Gyles Brandreth - A special new edition of the much-loved book, and the perfect present for word-lovers

Whether it's the distress of a bad haircut (AGE-OTORI) or longing for the food someone else is eating (GROAKING), the pleasure found in other people's happiness (CONFELICITY) or the shock of jumping into icy water (CURGLAFF), there are real words to pinpoint exactly how you feel and Susie Dent, Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner and lexicographer extraordinaire, is going to help you find them. Here are 1001 terms everyone needs, whether it's the best kind of hug (CWTCH), the relief found in swearing (LALOCHEZIA), or the ability to endure till the end (PERTOLERANCE). It's time to rediscover the lost positives of language (and be more GORM); find out how a stork gave us the word for the love between parent and child, and who the first MAVERICK was. Packed with unexpected stories and unforgettable words, on a mission to describe the indescribable, this life-enhancing book will deepen your vocabulary as much as it extends it. Welcome to the first truly human dictionary, as idiosyncratic and unusual as you are.

The debut murder mystery from Dictionary Corner's resident lexicographer, Susie Dent. **AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW**Find the truth between the lines. When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it puzzles the team of lexicographers working there. It soon becomes clear that this is not the usual eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies, and a particular year. For Martha Thornhill, the new Senior Editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant, beautiful older sister Charlie went missing. After a decade spent living abroad, Martha has returned to her father, her home, and the city whose institutions have defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When more letters arrive and the team pull apart the clues within them, the questions become more insistent and troubling. Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, but as the mystery of her disappearance starts to unravel, someone is trying to lead the lexicographers to the truth, while another is desperate to keep it buried. PRAISE FOR SUSIE DENT:'Susie Dent is a national treasure' - RICHARD OSMAN'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent and nobody writes about it more entertainingly' - GYLES BRANDRETH'Stuffed with delightful words . . . it'll keep Scrabble fanatics and wordsmiths entertained for hours' - RADIO TIMES

There is a word for how you feel, however you feel and Susie Dent, lexicographer extraordinaire and Queen of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, is going to help you find it.

Did you know that...STEALING SOMEONE'S THUNDER is based on a real event;The original FREELANCES were knights for hire ('free' + 'lance');Nelson was the first TO TURN A BLIND EYE (putting a telescope to his missing eye to ignore orders);GORDON BENNETT was a real (very badly behaved) person;As was JACK THE LAD;PULLING SOMEONE'S LEG was an 18th century robber's trick;BUTTERING UP came from the Indian custom of throwing balls of ghee at statues of gods to ask for favoursThis is just the tiniest taste of the many fascinating tales and histories behind our everyday words and phrases. In Interesting Stories about Curious Words, Susie Dent, Britain's cleverest lexicographer, linguistic expert and much-loved national treasure, explores all the very best RED HERRINGS, COCK AND BULL STORIES, WHITE ELEPHANTS and NINE-DAY WONDERS in the English language. There are enough stories to furnish a hundred conversations in a wonderful collection for everyone who loves words. 'Nobody on earth knows more about the English language than Susie Dent' Gyles Brandreth

Susie Dent, bestselling author, broadcaster and word expert, is on a mission to find light in the deepest, darkest corners of our language.It takes just a short browse through the dictionary to spot how it is filled with negative words. But Susie has searched far and wide to unearth happy and uplifting words and phrases that, in some cases, are long forgotten, while others have only just been discovered.Paired with beautiful illustrations, this is the perfect book to lift you out of your mubble fubbles (a slightly sad mood), make you grin like a gigglemug (someone who never stops smiling), and have you chortling (laughing) away in no time.This joyous collection of 100 positive words and their origins will show readers young and old just how wonderful language can be - and how you can use your words to make the world a happier place.

Did you know that . . . a soldier's biggest social blunder is called jack brew - making yourself a cuppa without making one for anyone else? That twitchers have an expression for a bird that can't be identified - LBJ (the letters stand for Little Brown Job)? Or that builders call plastering the ceiling doing Lionel Richie's dancefloor? Susie Dent does.Ever wondered why football managers all speak the same way, what a cabbie calls the Houses of Parliament, or how ticket inspectors discreetly request back-up? We are surrounded by hundreds of tribes, each speaking their own distinct slanguage of colourful words, jokes and phrases, honed through years of conversations on the battlefield, in A&E, backstage, or at ten-thousand feet in the air. Susie Dent has spent years interviewing hundreds of professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts, and the result is an idiosyncratic phrasebook like no other. From the Freemason's handshake to the publican's banter, Dent's Modern Tribes takes us on a whirlwind tour of Britain, decoding its secret languages and, in the process, finds out what really makes us all tick.

From dardledumdue, which means daydreamer in East Anglia, through forkin robbins, the Yorkshire term for earwigs, to clemt, a Lancashire word that means hungry, this title investigates an astonishingly rich variety of regional expressions, and provides insight into the history of the English language.

Sparkling with insight and linguistic curiosity, this delightful compendium answers 101 of the most intriguing questions about the English language, from word origins and spelling to grammar and usage. Irresistible to anyone with an interest in the words around them.