With its unparalleled coverage of English slang of all types (from 18th-century cant to contemporary gay slang), and its uncluttered editorial apparatus, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang was warmly received when its first edition appeared in 1998. 'Brilliant.' said Mark Lawson on BBC2's The Late Review; 'This is a terrific piece of work - learned, entertaining, funny, stimulating' said Jonathan Meades in The Evening Standard.But now the world's best single-volume dictionary of English slang is about to get even better. Jonathon Green has spent the last seven years on a vast project: to research in depth the English slang vocabulary and to hunt down and record written instances of the use of as many slang words as possible. This has entailed trawling through more than 4000 books - plus song lyrics, TV and movie scripts, and many newspapers and magazines - for relevant material. The research has thrown up some fascinating results

New Oxford. A third of the human population has been lost. The wars came, and they created a monster. The Pale, a subhuman, vampire-like drone. Then they lost control.In the thirty years that followed, humankind sought to rebuild itself within the walls of New Oxford. But society had become fractured - humans now lived incongruously among Genetic Others, themselves a group of many subspecies. The most dangerous of them all: the vampires. Somehow, these groups have managed a peaceful co-existence under the controlling government influence of the Cabal. But that is all about to change... When Phoebe Harkness receives a phone call in the middle of the night, things take a turn to the horrifying. Her supervisor at Blue Lab One, a high-security research facility, has gone missing. And all that is left behind: her teeth. Dr Harkness now finds herself in a race against time to stop further bloodshed and uncover the mystery behind the victims of this horrific crime. She must navigate the dark underworld of the vampire community, without becoming someone's prey herself... But she is not alone - on her side, against all odds, is another vampire. Together they must fight for answers before it's too late... Hell's Teeth is the gripping first instalment of the urban gothic Phoebe Harkness series. It follows the young doctor as she stalks through the corrupt dystopia of New Oxford. James Fahy lives in the North of England, close to wild moors and adjacent to a haunted wind farm, with his extremely patient and long-suffering family and a very old cat named Gargoyle. When the cat dies, James plans to buy a raven and name it Quoth. He is the author of the Changeling fantasy series, following the adventures of Robin, a seemingly unremarkable boy who is swept up into a war between our world, and the Netherworlde, a shadowy realm which lies beyond our own. In addition to fantasy, James also writes Science Fiction, Urban Gothic and Steampunk, for people old enough to know better. Venture Press is a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. We are committed to the discovery and rediscovery of immensely talented authors in the SFF genre, and continue to push boundaries in search of great literature. Join us as we venture across universes and unknown landscapes - past, present and future. Sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/1LUVI4n Follow us on Twitter @venture_press Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1NnFow7