{"title":"Willie Donaldson","description":"\u003cp\u003eDive into the wickedly funny world of Willie Donaldson, the master of satirical wit and outrageous tales. Perfect for fans of Kingsley Amis and early Martin Amis, browse his novels and memoirs now.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"brewer-s-rogues-villains-and-eccentrics-book-willie-donaldson-9780304357284","title":"Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics","description":"Taking its inspiration from the Brewer's tradition of recording unexpected and fascinating information that is not generally available in other reference books, 'Brewer's Rogues, Villains and Eccentrics' presents a colourful, informative and entertaining A-Z of bizarre Britons through the ages: assassins and arsonists, buggers and bigamists, hangmen and horse-stealers, hell-raisers and highwaymen, plus an array of poisoners, quacks, forgers and others. Yesterday's whoremasters and harlots rub shoulders with the defrocked parsons and dodgy geezers of contemporary Brtain in this richly entertaining dictionary of degradation, depravity and dottiness. A rich repository of arcane but fascinating information, it will make the perfect Christmas present for anyone who loves history, biography and 'Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49512904163601,"sku":"GOR001181617","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49557847212305,"sku":"GOR001237048","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50111343722769,"sku":"CIN0304357286G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50300283453713,"sku":"CIN0304357286VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50455661838609,"sku":"CIN0304357286A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50964049690897,"sku":"GOR008061843","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/B0026FV1OQ.jpg?v=1751433083"},{"product_id":"i-m-leaving-you-simon-you-disgust-me-book-willie-donaldson-9780304365753","title":"I'm Leaving You, Simon -  You Disgust Me","description":"Spoken and written language is littered with cliches, but there are some usages - smug statements of secondhand opinion, grating nuggets of folk wisdom, toe-curling verbal flourishes of the would-be authoritative - that go beyond the bounds of cliche to enter more desperate linguistic territory. We encounter these verbal horrors every day of our lives - in conversations overheard on tube, train and bus and at suburban dinner parties, in the fictional dialogues of TV drama - and even in the glib formulations of TV sports commentators. They are disparate in nature - but have one thing in common: they all represent desperate attempts on the part of the speaker to persuade the listener that certainty of language mirrors certainty of thought and intellect, to project a verbal front of decidedness, authority and knowledge. Willie Donaldson has turned his finely tuned satirical ear to these verbal inanities to create a unique, offbeat and entirely hilarious dictionary of cringemaking Islingtonian phrasemaking.But the twist is this: lurking behind the A-Z facade is a dramatis personae of gabbling middle-class archetypes, including the Simon of the title - a Canonbury-based wine importer - and his overwrought partner, Susan, a university academic. Their excruciating dialogues - conversational nightmares of pat phrases, glib opinion and conjugal bitchiness played out in the fictional context of a Barnsbury tapas bar named the Goya - are brilliantly captured by the author, and make this most individual of books a candidate for humour title of the year.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49563009614097,"sku":"GOR001147535","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51323416510737,"sku":"CIN0304365750VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53495843094801,"sku":"GOR001962995","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0304365750.jpg?v=1751071019"},{"product_id":"dictionary-of-national-celebrity-book-willie-donaldson-9780304368051","title":"The Dictionary of National Celebrity","description":"As Miles Kington recently complained in his Independent column, newspapers are increasingly full of unfamiliar names: 'Ant and Dec, Carol Smillie, Jordan, Simon Cowell,  Nasty Nick, the Coughing Major, Davina McCall. 'Who are these horrible people?' asked Mr Kington. 'There should be a Dictionary of National Celebrity to keep us informed.' Indeed. For those who have no idea as to the true identity of, say, Maureen from Driving School, Charlotte the Harlot or Foxy Coxy, help is at hand! The Dictionary of National Celebrity consists of some 300 A to Z entries, running the gamut of today's celebrity culture from Jade Goody to Simon Cowell, from Lord Brocket to Emma Bunton, from Vanessa Feltz to Michael Flatley, from Christine Hamilton to Lady Victoria Hervey, from James Hewitt to Paris Hilton, and from Ricardo the Queer Barber to Richard and Judy. The volume will also include entries for a small number of seminal historical figures - Icarus, Boudicca, Lady Godiva - who may fairly be said to have blazed a trail for today's celebrities.In addition to these biographical articles, there will also be short articles on some key words and phrases in the celebrity lexicon, some key issues for the today's Celebrities ('celebrity handholding', 'cracking the American market'), and on some fascinating Celebrity phenomena (including 'Celebrity air rage'). Furthermore, special feature entries detailing Celebrity faux pas, will be accompanied by Celebrity 'top ten' charts displaying the ups and downs in popularity of various household names.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49573491507473,"sku":"GOR011324565","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49584839590161,"sku":"GOR000437411","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49659699593489,"sku":"GOR001303310","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0304368059.jpg?v=1751431918"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-ie\/collections\/author-books-by-willie-donaldson.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}