Search results for ""author mark forsyth""

FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE ETYMOLOGICON.'Reading The Horologicon in one sitting is very tempting' Roland White, Sunday Times.Mark Forsyth presents a delightfully eccentric day in the life of unusual, beautiful and forgotten English words.From uhtceare in the hours before dawn through to dream drumbles at bedtime, The Horologicon gives you the extraordinary lost words you never knew you needed.Wake up feeling rough? Then you're philogrobolized. Pretending to work? That's fudgelling (which may lead to rizzling if you feel sleepy after lunch). A Radio 4 Book of the Week, The Horologicon is an eye-opening, page-turning celebration of the English language at its most endearingly arcane.

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FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER THE ETYMOLOGICON. 'An informative but highly entertaining journey through the figures of rhetoric ... Mark Forsyth wears his considerable knowledge lightly. He also writes beautifully.' David Marsh, Guardian. Mark Forsyth presents the secret of writing unforgettable phrases, uncovering the techniques that have made immortal such lines as 'To be or not to be' and 'Bond. James Bond.' In his inimitably entertaining and witty style, he takes apart famous quotations and shows how you too can write like Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde or John Lennon.Crammed with tricks to make the most humdrum sentiments seem poetic or wise, The Elements of Eloquence reveals how writers through the ages have turned humble words into literary gold - and how you can do the same.

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An exciting adventure, filled with magic, fun, friendships and weird and wonderful creatures! The story introduces readers to some brain-bendy puzzles and might just convince you that up is down and down is up...

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THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'Witty and erudite ... stuffed with the kind of arcane information that nobody strictly needs to know, but which is a pleasure to learn nonetheless.' Nick Duerden, Independent.'Particularly good ... Forsyth takes words and draws us into their, and our, murky history.' William Leith, Evening Standard.The Etymologicon is an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language.What is the actual connection between disgruntled and gruntled? What links church organs to organised crime, California to the Caliphate, or brackets to codpieces?Mark Forsyth's riotous celebration of the idiosyncratic and sometimes absurd connections between words is a classic of its kind: a mine of fascinating information and a must-read for word-lovers everywhere.'Highly recommended' Spectator

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This perfect gift for readers, writers, and literature majors alike unearths the quirks of the English language. For example, do you know why a mortgage is literally a “death pledge”? Why guns have girls’ names? Why “salt” is related to “soldier”? Discover the answers to all of these etymological questions and more in this fascinating book for fans of of Eats, Shoots & Leaves.The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains how you get from “gruntled” to “disgruntled”; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt”; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what, precisely, the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening. This witty book will awake the linguist in you and illuminate the hidden meanings behind common words and phrases, tracing their evolution through all of their surprising paths throughout history.

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A NEW, BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED HARDBACK EDITION OF THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, PUBLISHED ON ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY.'Witty and erudite ... stuffed with the kind of arcane information that nobody strictly needs to know, but which is a pleasure to learn nonetheless.' Nick Duerden, Independent.'Particularly good ... Forsyth takes words and draws us into their, and our, murky history.' William Leith, Evening Standard.The Etymologicon is an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and unerringly erudite guided tour of the secret labyrinth that lurks beneath the English language.What is the actual connection between disgruntled and gruntled? What links church organs to organised crime, California to the Caliphate, or brackets to codpieces?Mark Forsyth's riotous celebration of the idiosyncratic and sometimes absurd connections between words is a classic of its kind: a mine of fascinating information and a must-read for word-lovers everywhere.'Highly recommended' Spectator

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BY THE SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLING AUTHORThe perfect gift for anyone who has ever wondered about the unpredictable origins and etymologies of our Christmas customs! For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas, etymologically speaking, means "Go away, Christ". We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularising sweet wrappers. Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.'Witty and revelatory. Blooming brilliant' Raymond Briggs 'Everything we ever thought about Christmas is wrong! Great stuff' Matthew Parris

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THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A TIPPLE . . . OR TWO . . . OR TEN! Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there's drink there's drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. Tracing humankind's love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition, it answers every possible question:What did people drink? How much? Who did the drinking? Of the many possible reasons, why? On the way, learn about the Neolithic Shamans, who drank to communicate with the spirit world (no pun intended), marvel at how Greeks got giddy and Romans got rat-arsed, and find out how bars in the Wild West were never like the movies.This is a history of the world at its inebriated best.'This book is a laugh riot. I mean the way the author has presented it is hilarious and to the point' Goodreads Reviewer 'Highly entertaining. Cheers! Bottoms up! Good health!' Goodreads Reviewer'It can make a good gift for someone with a sense of humour and appreciation for the magical powers of alcohol' Goodreads Reviewer

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