All Gong and No Dinner: 1001 Homely Phrases and Curious Domestic Sayings - Couverture rigide

Rees, Nigel

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0007249357 ISBN 13 : 9780007249350

Editeur : Collins, 2007

Synopsis

A celebration and search for the origins of homely words, phrases and sayings.

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 All Gong and No Dinner. Illustrating every aspect of domestic life, from phrases to describe our less respectable neighbours, to the 'nannyisms' we heard as a child, they are guaranteed to raise a smile. Organised thematically, they take us from the kitchen to the bedroom to reveal profound truths and perfect nonsense.

This collection of sayings presents a rich, fascinating and humourous portrait of British family life. Beautifully designed and packaged, All Gong and No Dinner is the perfect gift for family members and language lovers.

‘all gong and no dinner. All talk and no action. What you would say of a loud-mouthed person who was somewhat short on achievement. Michael Grosvenor Myer, Haddenham, Cambridgeshire (1999), produced a Texan variant: ‘All hat and no cattle.’’

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Nigel Rees is a leading authority on the use of well-known phrases and sayings. As a broadcaster, he is best-known as the deviser and presenter of BBC Radio's Quote…Unquote.

As an author, he has written many books devoted to quotations and aspects of the popular use of the English language, always emphasizing the humour in his subject.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

Over the past thirty years, thousands of people have shared their informal family sayings with Nigel Rees and asked whether anybody else knew of them.

With All Gong and No Dinner, Nigel Rees has produced both a fresh and an updated celebration of these domestic catchphrases, household words, rhymes, old wives' sayings, and proverbial pearls of wisdom. He has searched for the origins of hundreds of the conversation clippings which together illustrate all aspects of domestic life. Whether unique to their owners, or instantly recognizable, they reveal everything from how we talk about our relatives and neighbours to the 'nannyisms' embedded since childhood.

Organized thematically, these euphemisms, exclamations, put downs and vivid vignettes, take us all the way from the kitchen to the bedroom, via the bathroom and back again. They underscore both the warm truths and the perfect nonsense of everyday family life.

All gong and no dinner - meaning, of a person, that he is 'all talk and no action'. What you might say of a loud-mouthed person who is somewhat short on achievement. Current since the mid-20th century at least. 'So far, all we have had from the Government is "all gong and no dinner" - to use a phase that a constituent of mine used in a public meeting. In other words, the sound and the fury have been there but the delivery has been missing' - speaker at Welsh Grand Committee (Westminster) (2001). Texan variant: 'All hat and no cattle.'

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Collins
• Date d'édition: 2007
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0007249357
• ISBN 13: 9780007249350
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 400
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible