Balderdash & Piffle - Hardcover

Games, Alex

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0563493364 ISBN 13: 9780563493365

Publisher: BBC Books, 2006

Synopsis

Discover the fascinating stories behind the words and phrases we use every day. English is now the world's most popular second language, understood by over 700 million people across the globe. Its use is amazingly broad: not only is it the language of Chaucer and Shakespeare, but also of hip-hop, international business and the internet (over 80% of home pages are in English). So where exactly do English words come from? They come from everywhere. English is a vast, rambling conglomeration of words and phrases from a huge variety of times and places, and every word has its own intriguing history."Balderdash & Piffle" is a guidebook - an entertaining look at what falls out of the chaotic family tree of English words when you uproot it and give it a damn good shake. Shaking the tree is writer, humorist and word-sleuth Alex Games. If you've ever wondered who first used 'cuppa' in print, what language gave us 'shampoo', when we started saying 'window', where 'minging' comes from, what Shakespeare had to say about 'geeks' and why 'berk' is really, really rude, you'll find it all (and much more) inside. You'll also have the chance to do your own word-sleuthing, through the BBC Wordhunt appeal. Who knows - if you have written evidence of a 'bouncy castle' from before 1986, you could even re-write history...

About this title

About the Author

Alex Games wrote the original Balderdash & Piffle which became an instant bestseller on publication in January 2006. He has written for most of the slightly posher newspapers, and in a brief stint as a gadget columnist he was responsible for reviewing some of the most inexpensive items ever to appear in the Financial Times. As well as writing comedy for BBC Radio 1 and 4, Alex has written biographies of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and Alan Bennett.

Victoria Coren is a well-known freelance journalist. She writes weekly columns in the Guardian and the Observer, and she has written two books, Love 16 and Once More With Feeling. She presents Balderdash & Piffle and several televised poker series. Victoria is a keen amateur word-hunter and an avid completer of crosswords, albeit not always with the right answers.

Edition details

• Publisher: BBC Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0563493364
• ISBN 13: 9780563493365
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304