Brewer's Britain & Ireland: History, Culture, Folklore & Etymol

Description: Brewer's Britain and Ireland is a Brewer's-style reference book about place-names and the historical associations of the places they designate. Lying part-way between the traditional gazetteer and a traveller's 'armchair companion', it takes the reader on an informative and fascinating 'heritage tour' of thousands of places and place-names in every part of the islands of Britain and Ireland. Brewer's Britain and Ireland is a 'phrase and fable gazetteer', gathering together in one A-Z volume the linguistic, historical, folkloric and literary associations behind thousands of locations in the British Isles, both celebrated and less well-known, from Ashby-de-le-Zouch to Blubberhouses, and from Wigton to Wetwang. The headwords will cover major towns and cities, intriguingly named villages, physical features such as rivers, mountains, forests and others, nicknames of places, fictional place-names and a multitude of other curiosities of locational nomenclature.

Review: 'the book provides an abundance of historical detail on how Britain got its names.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE 'This is much more than just a place-name dictionary. It is an A-Z of these islands, and explores the history and cultural associations as well as literary, musical, artistic and folklore connections of more than 7,500 places.' EVENING GAZETTE (Colchester) 1.6.05 'This lively tome is the perfect guide and companion for the arm chair rambler.' BELFAST TELEGRAPH (11.6.05) '...awe-inspiring in its imaginative sweep...Each page is likely to contain something of news to anybody, of the sort that turns round one's existing view of a place or crowds with personality and identity areas of mpay largely blank in most minds.' -- Ronald Hutton HISTORY TODAY (January 2006)

Contents: ETYMOLOGY: source language and meaning of each place; HISTORY: historical events (battles, sieges); LEGEND/FOLKLORE: local lore and legend; LITERARY ASSOCIATIONS: from Malory to Martin Amis FASCINATING FACTS: Everton FC used to play at Anfield. QUOTATIONS: 'Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough...'/ 'Christ, I must be bored: I just thought of Catford'


Author Biography: Ian Crofton has compiled many works of reference, books of quotations and miscellanies over the yers, including A Dictionary of Musical Quotations (with Donald Fraser), A Dictionary of Art Quotations, The Guinness Encyclopedia (as editor-in-chief), Brewer's Dictionary of Curious Titles, and, with John Ayto Brewer's Britain and Ireland and the 2nd edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable. He lives in North London. John Ayto is a writer and lexicographer. He is the editor of the forthcoming 17th edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, currently in preparation. His other authorial credits include The Oxford Dictionary of Rhyming Slang and The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Word Histories. He was a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Food. He lives in London. Ian Crofton is a writer and editor. His publications include Brewer's Curious Titles, A Dictionary of Musical Quotations and A Dictionary of Art Quotations, and he was editor-in-chief of The Guinness Encyclopedia. He lives in North London with his family and an exceptionally nice whippet called Oslo. Paul Cavill (place-name adviser) is senior lecturer in Anglo-Saxon at Nottingham University and publications officer of the English Place-Name Society.