Nigel Rees is gevierd voor het bedenken en presenteren van het radiopanelspel Quote... Unquote en voor het schrijven van meer dan vijftig boeken, die zich verdiepen in naslagwerken, humor en fictie. Zijn literaire bijdragen verkennen voornamelijk de rijkdom van de Engelse taal, met een focus op de daaruit voortvloeiende humor en de oorsprong en het gebruik van bekende citaten en gezegden. Rees onderscheidt zich door zijn boeiende benadering van etymologie en vocabulaire, waardoor deze onderwerpen toegankelijk en vermakelijk zijn voor lezers. Zijn omvangrijke oeuvre positioneert hem als een vooraanstaand popularisator van taalkundige inzichten en woordspelingen.
This dictionary of more than 2000 quotations provides information on a wide range of problematic quotations. Annotations explain the origin and background to famous quotations, highlight popular misconceptions and correct common misquotations. It includes an extensive index of key words.
Old, new, borrowed and blue! Graffiti 4 includes special sections devoted to the work of graffiti-writers in Australia, New Zealand and old Pompei, as well as the usual British and American gems. It' rude, irreverent and uproariously funny.
The essential and unique annotated companion to the complex world of quotations. With its detailed insights into a host of misremembered, misattributed, and generally problematic sayins and remarks, this book forms a fascinating and entertaining
Who told novelist H.G. Wells "It is all very well to be able to write books, but can you waggle your ears?" (J.M Barrie, author of Peter Pan ). Which star stated, "An actor's a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening"? (Marlon Brando). Whatever the subject, someone said something wise, witty, sarcastic, or silly about it. These thousands of quotations, arranged thematically, will roll over everything you ever took too seriously. Now greatly expanded!
Over the last 30 years, hundreds of thousands of listeners of Quote…Unquote have written to Nigel Rees to share informal sayings from everyday life. These have taken the form of domestic catchphrases, family sayings (often unique to a particular family), household words, rhymes, old wives' sayings, and proverbial wisdom. Often they were accompanied by a request as to whether anybody else knew of them. Nigel Rees has searched for the origins of hundreds of these conversation clippings, which together form the basis of the book. Illustrating every aspect of domestic life, from phrases to describe our less respectable neighbors, to the 'nannyisms' we heard as a child, they are guaranteed to raise a smile.
Unravel the meaning, origin, and usage of over 6,000 phrases from book and film titles, idioms and cliches, to nicknames, slogans and quotations with this modern and entertaining guide to wonderful phrases by one of the world’s best-known wordsmiths.The ideal replacement or complement to that tatty old copy of Brewer's Phrase and Fable most of us have about the house, A Word in Your Shell-Like is an entertaining look at both familiar and unfamiliar phrases by one of the key world authorities in English language reference. The articles also contain discussion of meaning, origin and usage.Who was originally 'sold down the river'? Have you been told to 'Naff off'? Find out of whom it was said 'he couldn't chew gum and fart at the same time', who the 'catcher in the rye' was, and what it means to be 'caught between wind and water'. Few other word reference books are likely to increase your store of knowledge with such fun.
