This indispensible guide to 'Slang, University Wit and Pickpocket Eloquence' contains fascinating insights into the humour and mentality of its compilers. Enrich your vocabulary with the vulgar wittic
Meet the Oracle of Delphi in ancient Greece in this transporting tale of the classical world by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Bettany Hughes.Did I believe in what I was doing? Or rather, since I was doing nothing, did I believe in what someone, something was doing to me?It begins with the half-burnt fish, miraculously restored to life, and the healing of the ill child.Young Arieka is an unloved misfit, but as rumours of her spiritual powers reach the High Priest of Apollo, her life is transformed. She is taken to Delphi to become a Pythia: a mouthpiece for the god Apollo, an oracle uttering riddling prophecies from a smoky cave to frenzied crowds.But when this role is dramatically thrust upon her, the priestess must navigate political conspiracy and the threat of the Romans to preserve her belief – and sanity.
"The Vulgar Tongue tells the full story of English language slang, from its origins in early British beggar books to its spread in American and Australian culture in the eighteenth century"--
