A frank, funny, and provocative journey through the international culture of swearing, from the shocked seventies to the naughty noughties.
Peter Silverton has been a journalist for 30 years. He started as features editor at Sounds in 1976, covered Punk, went on the Anarchy Tour bus with the Pistols and Clash and later wrote Glen Matlock's autobiography (I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol). He's also worked as an editor at Time Out, the Mail on Sunday, the Sunday Express and the Guardian, and written for practically every music mag and newspaper in the land.
A comprehensive and witty look at swearing and the impact of its
new acceptability on society ... Packed full of facts and answers
to pressing questions, this is an interesting read and perfect for
fans of Truss-style books on language
*Bookseller*
An exhaustive piece of research that, as a textbook of linguistic
and cultural curios, works well
*List*
Intriguing, amusing, enormously enjoyable ... Every page offers
curious facts and ideas and one is left with amazement at the vast
profane creativity at work in the unique human project of language.
And so, despite what I was so often told at school, I now have to
admit that swearing really is big and clever
*Observer*
[A] consistently enjoyable treatise on English swearing. Too
intelligent and impassioned to be a Christmas novelty hit, too
entertaining to impress purist academics, Filthy English falls into
the category of popular history, enlivened by anecdote, digression
and the author's appealing appetite for language's cloacal
inclinations ... a generous buffet of facts surrounding our
linguistic depravities
*Herald*
With likeable digressiveness, Silverton chases down etymologies,
charts changing standards of taste ... The last few chapters
(particularly those on swearing in pop music, and on racist
epithets) are very good
*Guardian*
Peter Silverton explores the history of swearing in easy-to-read
chapters ... Getting to grips with the etymology of rude words has
a certain charm, and is sure to make you a dinner-party hit
*Scarlet*
An extraordinary work ... littered with enlightening facts
*Ham & High*
Silverton's enjoyable book investigates why most of us no longer
seem to give a fuck about "fuck", but are still sensitive to many
other bad words.
*Observer*
I found this a particularly amusing and informative book ... One
comes away deeply impressed by the malleability and profundity of
dirty language throughout the world and its evolution through
time.
*Guardian*
The book is full of tit-bits and amused me greatly.
*Sunday Telegraph*
Silverton's often hilarious exploration of potty talk ranges from
"bloody" (from the "bloods" - posh Georgian rowdies) to a favourite
term of hip-hoppers shorted to "Your mother!" as long ago as the
19th century.
*Independent*
A hugely entertaining book... Silverton exposes, with hilarious
jokes, quotes and asides, the strict etiquettes that govern our
swearing. Whether you approve of swearing or not, you have to
admire Silverton's joyful, passionate love of language and his
finely tuned ear for usage and meaning. His research into etymology
and usage is scholarly, and his plays on words to make his point
are very funny ... Silverton's achievement with Filthy English is
to honour words that are so often tediously and erroneously accused
of being "unnecessary" or lazy, and remind us of their history,
meaning and subtlety. I loved this book.
*The Times*
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