A more-ishly browsable collection of words and phrases, linguistic quirks, lexical oddities and syntactic surprises. Our langauge is one of delight and curiosity. BUTTERING PARSNIPS, TWOCKING CHAVS is a guided tour of English, exploring the origins of words, their changing meaning, lexical peculiarities, word games and lost words, presented in lists, small passages of narrative text, amusing quotations and nuggets of amazing facts. This must-have compendium shows that words have a matchless power to entertain. Here you will find enough new words and phrases to last a lifetime. Idioms frolic beside cliches, catchphrases, proverbs, eponyms, acronyms, spoonerisms and split infinitives. Text messages cavort alongside business jargon and rap slang to produce a language that is both witty and bizarre, and sometimes frankly outstanding. So whether you're a yuppie or a woopie, a sinbad or dinky, a spod or even a wazzock, these pages will provide endless hours of delight and fascination.

It was not so long ago that the belief in witchcraft was shared by members of all levels of society. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, diseases were feared by all, the infant mortality rate was high, and around one in six harvests was likely to fail. In the small rural communities in which most people lived, affection and enmity could build over long periods. When misfortune befell a family, they looked to their neighbours for support - and for the cause. During the sixteenth century, Europe was subject to a fevered and pious wave of witch hunts and trials. As the bodies of accused women burnt right across the Continent, the flames of a nationwide witch hunt were kindled in England. In 1612 nine women were hanged in the Pendle witch trials, the prosecution of the Chelmsford witches in 1645 resulted in the biggest mass execution in England, and in the mid-1640s the Witch finder General instigated a reign of terror in the Puritan counties of East Anglia. Hundreds of women were accused and hanged. It wasn't until the latter half of the seventeenth century that witch-hunting went into decline.In this book, Andrew and David Pickering present a comprehensive catalogue of witch hunts, arranged chronologically within geographical regions. The tales of persecution within these pages are testimony to the horror of witch-hunting that occurred throughout England in the hundred years after the passing of the Elizabethan Witchcraft Act of 1563.

The Penguin Concise Thesaurus is the ideal desk companion for all writers. Authoritative, wide-ranging, up-to-date and easy to use, it offers a vast selection of synonyms for over 15,000 words. Whether you’re solving a crossword or searching for an imaginative phrase for a piece of writing, this companion to The Penguin Concise English Dictionary is an essential reference work.

• Contains nearly 400,000 synonyms

• Ranges from standard and formal English to slang and jargon

• Includes hundreds of contemporary buzzwords and expressions, from chill out to snail mail

• Lists words closest in meaning first

• Gives helpful examples to pinpoint the nuances of particular words

20 terrifying tales of horror written by such masters of the genre as Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce. Steel your nerves for encounters with ghouls, werewolves, invisible vampires, screaming skulls, monstrous slugs and, not least of all, the cruelty and murderous nastiness of your fellow-man. Ideal reading for newcomers to the horror story and aficionados alike. A companion volume to 'Classic Horror Stories', 'Classic Ghost Stories', 'Classic Ghost Stories 2' and 'Classic Short Stories'.

This collection contains twenty of the very best supernatural tales from the golden age of the ghost story. It includes classics by some of the most esteemed writers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, among them Sheridan Le Fanu, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ambrose Bierce, Washington Irving and M.R. James. Also included are neglected masterpieces of terror by the likes of William Hope Hodgson, Mrs B.M. Croker, Louisa Baldwin and Amyas Northcote. The stories themselves range from the quaintly wistful to the genuinely disturbing and, hopefully, will delight and surprise aficionados of the ghost story and newcomers alike. Each tale comes complete with a brief biography of the author. A companion volume to 'Classic Ghost Stories' and 'Classic Horror Stories'.

This unconventional rites-of-passage debut novel begins on the last evening of the twentieth century and spans a 25-year period in the life of its central character, encompassing along the way life in an English public school, a mysterious stone circle, witchcraft, illegal archaeology, first sex, teen confusion, hedgehogs and sudden death. Adventurous in subject matter, form and language, it has topped charts on sites for new writing. "Stunningly good," "Witty and gripping," "A wonderful piece of writing" (readers' comments).

20 terrifying tales of horror written by such masters of the genre as Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker. Close the curtains, put another log on the fire, and embark on a scary journey into an underworld roamed by murderous Inquisitors, long-dead witches, phantom cars, haunted dolls, werewolves, mummies, zombies and vampires, to name but a few. Ideal reading for newcomers to the horror story and aficionados alike. A companion volume to Classic Ghost Stories and Classic Ghost Stories 2.

This acclaimed A-Z dictionary is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the superstitions, old and new, of the English-speaking world, complete with their origins, meanings and variant forms. It includes just about everything from touching wood, crossing fingers and identifying future lovers to folk remedies, spells and, new for this third edition of the book, modern beliefs relating to the lottery, the computer and the mobile phone. A first-class source book for the historian, folklorist and casual reader alike, it also offers antidotes to some of the most feared taboos. What should you do to avoid seven years' bad luck if you break a mirror? How can you walk safely under a ladder? Which is the correct end to crack open a boiled egg? This book has all the answers.

Title: Two discourses delivered at the New Universalist Chapel in Westminster-Street: one, at the dedication of the chapel, Dec. 29, 1825: the other, on the parable of the unjust steward, Jan. 22, 1826.Author: David PickeringPublisher: Gale, Sabin Americana Description: Based on Joseph Sabin's famed bibliography, Bibliotheca Americana, Sabin Americana, 1500--1926 contains a collection of books, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, from the time of their discovery to the early 1900s. Sabin Americana is rich in original accounts of discovery and exploration, pioneering and westward expansion, the U.S. Civil War and other military actions, Native Americans, slavery and abolition, religious history and more.Sabin Americana offers an up-close perspective on life in the western hemisphere, encompassing the arrival of the Europeans on the shores of North America in the late 15th century to the first decades of the 20th century. Covering a span of over 400 years in North, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, this collection highlights the society, politics, religious beliefs, culture, contemporary opinions and momentous events of the time. It provides access to documents from an assortment of genres, sermons, political tracts, newspapers, books, pamphlets, maps, legislation, literature and more.Now for the first time, these high-quality digital scans of original works are available via print-on-demand, making them readily accessible to libraries, students, independent scholars, and readers of all ages.++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++SourceLibrary: Huntington LibraryDocumentID: SABCP02622500CollectionID: CTRG98-B1929PublicationDate: 18260101SourceBibCitation: Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to AmericaNotes: "Published by request."Collation: 32 p.; 22 cm

This carefully selected collection comprises twenty classic short stories on the themes of love and romance. Written by such masters of the form as Thomas Hardy, O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Oscar Wilde, these tales have enchanted, engaged and enthralled generations of readers and maintain a seductive and irresistible hold on the romantic imagination today. Each unforgettable story comes complete with an informative and illuminating biography of the author.