A jubilant celebration of British English's most wonderful moments (and of the island nations that came up with them). We British are an eccentric population with a culture that is suitably, and uniquely, barmy. We invented trainspotting and raves; we love saying 'please' and 'thank you' to strangers in the street but then shouting at them in football grounds; we taught the world how to write great pop music but also how to make a jolly good cup of tea. From out of this higgledy-piggledy culture have emerged the thousands of brilliantly British words and phrases we use to define it. This book is a celebration of these linguistic gems, and of the people and culture they describe.