Michael Madigan is no ordinary citizen. As an employed husband, father and homeowner, he lives an orthodox life in mid-90s London...but his mind is faltering and his life is about to alter...dramatically. Unable to contend with a personal upheaval, his troubled mind relinquishes its tenuous grip on reality and his world plunges into a maelstrom of turmoil. Fuelled by alcohol, he ventures on a self-destructive journey littered with gruesome memories and disturbing flashbacks, tragic brutality, darkly comic episodes and gut-wrenching emotion. Can he escape his demons and the impending abyss? How will the characters he encounters affect his behaviour? Will he reconstruct his life? Or continue to plummet? A shocking revelation, coupled with a distinct realization, determine his path...

Offering coverage of over 6,000 slang words and expressions from the Cockney 'abaht' to the American term 'zowie', this is the most authoritative dictionary of slang from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.

A smart, hilarious, and lavishly illustrated guide to the most euphemised word in the English language: Drunk A record-breaking assemblage of 2,964 different ways to say "drunk." Tipsy, roasted, three sheets, whazooed and Boris Yeltsinned are just the beginning....With an introduction by the wise-guy lexicographer himself, Paul Dickson, and illustrations by renowned artist Brian Rea. Dickson, who holds the Guiness World Record for collecting the most words for being, er, not sober, not only provides a dictionary of those words, but reveals why there are so many synonyms for being "drunk," and how he came to collect more of them than anyone else. The terms are annotated, too, and lushly illustrated, explaining the twist and turns of a language that has thousands of ways to say the same thing. How, for example, does a word like "blotto" go from the lips of P.G. Wodehouse, into the writings of Edmund Wilson, before landing with Otto from The Simpson's ("My name is Otto, I like to get blotto").

Are you a bit of a chairwarmer? Do you use the wins from a country straight to get scudded on snakebite in a blind tiger? Do you ride the waves on puddle or death drop? Vice Slang gently eases you into the language of gambling, drugs and alcohol, providing you with 3,000 words to establish yourself firmly in the world of corruption and wickedness. All words are illustrated by a reference from a variety of sources to prove their existence in alleys and dives throughout the English speaking world. This entertaining book will give you hours of reading pleasure.