Knickers in a Twist: A Dictionary of British Slang

This is a gift for my husband... he originally grew up in the UK but moved to America at the age of 15. Needless to say he has lost his british accent but never lost his roots.... He is always reeling off british slang to our kids and putting on a cockney accent. This is a christmas present for him (Yes Im starting early!!), and I know he is going to LOVE this!!!! The book contains everything you could think of. I snuck the book out of its hiding place for me and the kids to read and it made us laugh so much. A very clever, different and unique gift. I could not fault it in any possible way. The Shipping and handling was free and arrived less than 48 hours after i ordered it. Fabulous book, and fabulous service!!!!!

Being an "anglophile" helps but this was great for anyone that has watched a brit-com or film, turned on closed captioning and still went: "Huh?" "Whovians" can benefit as much as travellers...or modern brit lit readers and newsies that try and follow comments about the Royals. Surprizingly many make simple sense...but then there are those slang remarks that only make sense if you know something of the history of the usage. Oh my! (You cannot be a brit fan and NOT know what a "whovian" is, or can you?) Buy it. Quick read and loads of fun and enlightenment.

Laughed until I cried! My mom is British so this book briught back many childhood memories. A 'must have' if you enjoy humor!

I am finding the book interesting. The number of expressions I was already familiar with--perhaps thanks to having grown up in New England?-- surprised me. I also recognized with pleasure quite a few that I had become familiar with by reading British literature. The reason for my giving the book only 4 stars is that, in explaining some British words, it often annoyingly mentions others that a foreigner (e.g., me) is not likely to know. That would be all right if you could find those terms elsewhere in the book, but No. They appear to be slang and should fit right in, but the author has chosen not to enlighten the reader.

I actually bought this book as a gift for a friend who, like myself, loved their time in Great Britian with the slang being a particular favorite. Of course I couldn't help but go through this book before wrapping and giggled through out. Trust me if you ever go to the UK you can wear that fanny pack but don't say "fanny pack" unless you want some snickers coming your way. It's devided up into catagories with defintions easy to understand. Great for that person who loves language, England, or reference books. Well worth the purchase.

I bought this for my sister who travels to the UK frequently. It has a well organized table of contents. It's very amusing. Good gift for an Anglophile.

I've been watching a lot of British TV shows and had no idea what they were talking about - this book is a big help in the deciphering. It is also humorous to see the different expressions.

I enjoy watching British comedies and my wife spent some time in Scotland, so I was looking for a treasure trove of slang that was not such common knowledge. On this point I was disappointed. If you have watched enough episodes of BBCAmerica you will have heard most of it. Similarly, I was expecting a bit more depth to the list; perhaps some back story, history or examples from popular culture. Instead, it has a few pages for each section; sections revolve around food, sex, travel and the like. There is no background on the subject; it is a list of terms and their meaning. The author tries to be light and funny, but after the tenth "definition" it gets stale. So, the lack of anything new word-wise combined with the lack of anything knew about those words makes for a dull book. Good for those who know little about the language or don't watch British shows.

Nice book ! Good price and a quick délivery ! Thanks

A great resource to flip through. Lots of great sayings for writers.

Un libro ideal para complementar el aprendizaje de idiomas, ideal para enteder expresiones que no tienen una traduccion literal a todos los idiomas.

The Knickers in a Twist book of British slang is a really good buy as it gives you a good selection of the most common British slag and is very funny and a good read and I would recommend it to anyone if they are interested in British slang.

Love this book loads its very funny and actually accurate.