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Dent's Modern Tribes by Susie Dent x-book

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Dent's Modern Tribes

Author
Susie Dent
Narrator
Susie Dent
Publisher
John Murray Press
Publish Date
20 October 2016
Run Time
7 hours 22 minutes
Format
x-book®
Genre
Language: history and general works, Slang and dialect humour
$13.95

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What to expect

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.

(P)2016 John Murray Press

Critics Review

  • A fabulous read for anyone who loves words, and wants to learn some more. Funny, fact-filled and delightful

    Jonathan Ross

  • Wonderfully clever and funny . . . a national treasury from a national treasure

    Richard Osman

  • A fascinating, joyful look at the tribes all around us, from twitchers to taxi-drivers. A must

    Matt Haig

  • I thought only criminals had their own words for everything. Dent's Modern Tribes shows me quite how wrong I was

    Lynne Truss

See more reviews
  • Sparkles with gentle wit, fascinating illustration, and linguistic insight

    David Crystal

  • A brilliant, funny, wise, and illuminating canter through the languages of modern tribes

    Richard Madeley

  • Susie Dent is a one-off. She breathes life and fun into words

    Pam Ayres

  • The keys to the mysterious Kingdom of Jargon

    Adam Buxton

  • This phrasebook is like no other and will help anyone talk the talk - whatever that might be

    The Sun

  • Thoroughly entertaining and illuminating

    Independent

  • Fascinating study of expressions . . . Dent is something of a modern-day Professor Henry Higgins

    The Lady

  • A work of considerable interest and charm, dishing up verbal pleasures and surprises on virtually every page

    Sentence First blog

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Details
Author
Susie Dent
Narrator
Susie Dent
Duration
7 hours 22 minutes
Release Date
20 October 2016
ISBN
9781473631427
Format
x-book®
Publisher
John Murray Press
Genre
Language: history and general works, Slang and dialect humour

Synopsis

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.(P)2016 John Murray Press

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