Any book of this nature is of course indebted to the scholars, lexicographers, compilers and wordsmiths from whose decades of work it is assembled. The material featured here has been pulled from a variety of different sources, but most notably the Oxford English Dictionary (still the single greatest scholarly achievement going) and the separate Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins; both the Chambers Dictionary and exceptional Chambers Slang Dictionary; Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable; and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. To all those involved in producing these exceptional titles I am immensely grateful.
Personal thanks to my agent, Andrew Lownie; to Hugh Barker at Constable; and to my parents, Leon and Maureen, for their unparalleled patience and proofreading ability.