'I can't remember when I last learnt quite so many different things from one book' - Craig Brown, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY. This book focuses not just on the linguistic and cultural resonance of thousands of contemporary words and phrases, but also on the riches of the modern verbal imagination as expressed in a host of titles, characters and allusions from cultural arenas as diverse as film, literature, art, music, comic strips and computer games. Here, deftly defined and intriguingly explained, are thousands of words, idioms, catchphrases, slogans, names, nicknames, 'named' events and book, film and TV-programme titles that resonate in the folk memory of English-speaking people all over the world.