Dent's modern tribes : the secret languages of Britain
Dent, Susie2017
Books, Manuscripts
In a unique and witty guide to Britain's modern tribes, Dent takes us on a fascinating journey of private languages. Drawing on years of interviews with hundreds of professionals, she decodes the language of cabbies to paramedics, and comedians to barristers. 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.
Main title:
Dent's modern tribes : the secret languages of Britain / Susie Dent.
Author:
Dent, Susie, author
Imprint:
London : John Murray, 2017.
Collation:
328 pages ; 20 cm
Notes:
Originally published: 2016.Includes index.
ISBN:
9781473623897 (pbk)9781473623880 (ebook)
Dewey class:
427
LC class:
PE3701
Local class:
427
Language:
English
Added title:
Subject:
BRN:
2031165