The language of crime has a long and venerable history - in fact, the first collection of words specifically used by criminals, Hye-Way to the Spittel House, dates from as early as 1531. Jonathon Green is our national expert on slang, and in Crooked Talk he looks at five hundred years of crooks and conmen - from the hedge-creepers and counterfeit cranks of the sixteenth century to the blaggers and burners of the twenty-first - as well as the swag, the hideouts, the getaway vehicles and the 'tools of the trade'. Not to mention a substantial detour into the world of prisons that faced those unlucky enough to be caught by the boys in blue. If you have ever wondered when the police were first referred to as pigs, why prison guards became known as redraws, or what precisely the subtle art of dipology involves, then this book has all the answers.

A book in which some of our best writers address their own losses — and help us endure our own… A heartbreaking, comforting and beautiful collection of true stories about grief and mourning from some of Canada’s best known writers. When Jean Baird’s daughter, Bronwyn, died suddenly, Jean’s deep instinct was to turn to books to help her in her time of sudden loss. Although she found that the thoughts of counselors, psychologists, Buddhists, and self-help gurus were perhaps some help, the works that truly reached to the heart of the matter were by literary writers, largely from the UK and the US. Scanning the Canadian landscape, Jean and her husband George Bowering found elegies and tributes, but little from our writers about the person who is left behind to mourn or what it takes to endure grieving. The Heart Does Break — an anthology of twenty original pieces — sets out to fill that gap.

Bank robbers. Who are they? Where do they come from? What motivates individuals to commit these crimes? Behind the Bars: Experiences in Crime examines these questions in this intriguing study of the life situations, relationships, and value systems of people who commit serious crimes. Based on eight years of research with law enforcement officials, the media, and interviews with more than eighty Canadian and American bank robbers, Behind the Bars goes behind the facelessness of the crime itself and into the hearts and minds of the offenders. Meet an ex-police officer, drug addicts, compulsive gamblers, a senior citizen, two con-authors, an exotic dancer, family men, informants, and career criminals. Their strikingly candid stories will inspire a great range of emotions, but most of all they will provide greater understanding of criminal behaviour. Frederick J. Desroches humanizes the offender by shedding signficant light on the social and economic conditions of offenders; on the dynamics of criminal partnerships; and on the problems many of these men experience and bring on themselves. Desroches balances the passion of criminals' stories with thematic and theoretical overviews of specific issues to create an exciting account that will capture the attention and imagination of any reader who has ever wondered why criminals commit crimes.

Entry includes attestations of the head word's or phrase's usage, usually in the form of a quotation. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Irreverent but never irrelevant, Canada's satirical news magazine FRANK is on prominent display in this hilarious volume of "FRANK Pranks," during which FRANK operatives concoct a wildly implausible cover story, dial up their hapless victims, and set out to prove just how gullible certain Canadians really are. The results range from the deliciously predictable—Canadian Alliance stalwarts are apoplectic when told that Ottawa is secretly donating Zambonis to the fictitious African country of Chapati—to the surprisingly educational—FRANK canvasses the cronies and former cabinet ministers of deposed Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for an "Airbus" defense fund, and the total pledged is fifty dollars. Here at last are the unexpurgated, full-length renderings of some of FRANK's most audacious, revealing, and heartless phone pranks, featuring such notables as Pierre Berton, Her Excellency Adrienne Clarkson, Sheila Copps, Allan Fotheringham, Michael Moriarty, Farley Mowat, Rita McNeil, Lloyd Robertson, William Thorsell, Ken Whyte, Elwy Yost, and most of the membership of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance.