A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain
A01=Matthew Engel
Author_Matthew Engel
Bill Bryson
Category=CB
Category=JBCC1
David Crystal
Eleven Minutes Late
Engel's England
Engel’s England
eq_bestseller
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Extracts from the Red Notebooks
Jeremy Paxman
Kate Fox
Matthew Engel
Melvyn Bragg
One Capital and One Man
The Adventure of English
The English
The Stories of English
The Story of the English Language
Thirty-nine Counties
Watching the English
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Product details
- ISBN 9781781256695
- Weight: 200g
- Dimensions: 128 x 196mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 2018
- Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Are we tired of hearing that fall is a season, sick of being offered fries and told about the latest movie? Yeah. Have we noticed the sly interpolation of Americanisms into our everyday speech? You betcha. And are we outraged? Hell, yes. But do we do anything? Too much hassle. Until now.
In That's The Way It Crumbles Matthew Engel presents a call to arms against the linguistic impoverishment that happens when one language dominates another. With dismay and wry amusement, he traces the American invasion of our language from the early days of the New World, via the influence of Edison, the dance hall and the talkies, right up to the Apple and Microsoft-dominated present day, and explores the fate of other languages trying to fend off linguistic takeover bids. It is not the Americans' fault, more the result of their talent for innovation and our own indifference.
He explains how America's cultural supremacy affects British gestures, celebrations and way of life, and how every paragraph and conversation includes words the British no longer even think of as Americanisms. Part battle cry, part love song, part elegy, this book celebrates the strange, the banal, the precious and the endangered parts of our uncommon common language.
Matthew Engel is a journalist and author. He writes regularly for the Guardian and Financial Times, among other publications, and was the editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack for twelve years. He is also a baseball enthusiast. His books include Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain,Extracts from the Red Notebooks and Engel's England: Thirty-nine Counties, One Capital and One Man (Profile, 2014) [9781846685729].
