The Complete Uxbridge English Dictionary

by Tim Brooke-Taylor, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Barry Cryer

Do words fail you? Never again, once you've become the proud owner of The Complete Uxbridge English Dictionary .Every word has a meaning, but over the years those meanings change. Dip into these helpfully illustrated pages and you'll find many of the words you use every day without ever realising that their up-to-date definition is something entirely different.Words like 'bunny' (rather like a bun), or 'cherish' (rather like a chair), 'Cardiology' (the study of knitwear) or 'buggery' (the study of insects), 'Venezuala' (a gondola with a harpoon) or 'Norway' (a Geordie exclamation of surprise), 'ivy' (the Roman for "four") or 'faculty' (cockney for "there's no more PG Tips").Thanks to The Complete Uxbridge English Dictionary you can now use familiar, everyday words in total confidence, fully appraised of their latest meanings. Happy wording!

Genres: Humor, Dictionaries

319 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE was an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footnights revue in 1964. Becoming wider known to the public for his work on BBC Radio with I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, he moved into television with At Last the 1948 Show working together with old Cambridge friends John Cleese and Graham Chapman. He is most well known as one member of The Goodies, starring in the TV series throughout the 1970s and picking up international recognition in Australia and New Zealand. He has also appeared as an actor in various sitcoms, and has been a panellist on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue for nearly 40 years.

Brooke-Taylor studied at Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge. There he read Economics and Politics before changing to read Law, and mixed with other budding comedians, including John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Bill Oddie and Jonathan Lynn in the prestigious Cambridge University Footlights Club (of which Brooke-Taylor became President in 1963). The Footlights Club revue, A Clump of Plinths was so successful during its Edinburgh Festival Fringe run, that the show was renamed as Cambridge Circus and the revue transferred to the West End in London, and then later taken to both New Zealand and to Broadway in the United States in September 1964.

Brooke-Taylor moved swiftly into BBC Radio with the fast-paced comedy show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again in which he performed and co-wrote. Other members of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again were John Cleese, Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden, David Hatch and Jo Kendall. In 1967, Brooke-Taylor became a writer/performer on the television comedy series At Last the 1948 Show, with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman. The famous "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch was co-written by the four writers/performers of the series. In 1968–1969, Brooke-Taylor was also a cast member and writer on the television comedy series Marty starring Marty Feldman, with John Junkin and Roland MacLeod.

At around the same time, Brooke-Taylor made two series of Broaden Your Mind with Graeme Garden (and Bill Oddie joining the series for the second season). Describing itself as "An Encyclopedia of the Air", this series was a string of comedy sketches (often lifted from I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again), linked (loosely) by a weekly running theme. Its success led to the commissioning of The Goodies, also with Bill Oddie and Graeme Garden. First transmitted on BBC2 in November 1970, The Goodies was a huge television success, running for over a decade on both BBC TV and (in its final year) UK commercial channel London Weekend Television, spawning many spin-off books and successful records.

Brooke-Taylor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours.

Reviews

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite part of 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue' which is my favourite Radio comedy show. I will never forget Stephen Fry's definition of Countryside - The act of killing Piers Morgan.

Kept me up late at night, giggling like a loon.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed until I cried with some of the definitions in this book and much to my partner's annoyance, kept reading out excerpts to him - his appreciation of jokes that are a play on words is not equal to mine.
A comprehensive list of definitions of some of the words in the English language, some of which are particularly UK centric, but then these are definitions from the British radio programme "I am Sorry I Haven't a Clue". The Uxbridge English Dictionary is just one of the rounds which may feature in an episode of ISIHAC, but I defy "one song to the tune of another' to be published in book form.

If plays on words do not move you, then this book is not for you. If plays on words are for you, then read this and weep...much like I did.

As a taster of what to expect the follpwing are some of my favourite definitions:

Archery - Lying under oath and at all other times
Audi A4 - What you say when you drop a heavy ream of paper on your foot
Bauhaus - Buckingham Palace
Castigate - To have a nasty accident climbing into a field
Chatelaine - Couldn't get home in time
Coitus Interruptus - Deck games on the Titanic
Crystallise - Retirement gift for Lord Nelson
Delaware - To have seen Only Fools and Horses
Faculty - Cockney for 'there's no more PG Tips'
Foible - Something coughed up by a New York cat
Fossilise - When it's too late for glasses
Fundamentalist - To give money to David Icke
Gripe - What Australians make wine from
Hindsight - Builder's cleavage
Incumbent - MP's expenses
Magnum Opus - Tom Selleck's Irish cat
Metatarsals - Got together at Jeffrey Archers
Midwifery - Part-way through breaking wind
Pastiche - What Sean Connery eats in Cornwall
Picador - Find your own way out
Propaganda - A good look
Randomize - A squint
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah - What to do before leaving the gents

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorable and clever definitions. Some make you laugh out loud, and then again when you remember them. Some ideas were a bit overused (particularly most words starting with a T or most words ending in -ant or -tate) but mostly they’re brilliant. Lovely illustrations accompany some of the entries. And I have to admit I’m chuffed that despite being a non-native speaker, I got most of the puns. My laundry heap in the hallway will henceforth be known as Washington.

[Steve Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the best contributions to the Uxbridge English Dictionary round of the Radio 4 show, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Really funny stuff but the jokes work better on the radio than on the page. That said, this is pretty much essential reading for anyone that is a fan of ISIHAC

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Been listening to it since I was a kid & the Uxbridge English Dictionary is my favorite round. This book is awesome. One day I'll have my definitions in there!!

[Mark Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious- just like the radio show. Highly recommended

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a book you read so much open occasionally for a sensible chuckle or two.

[Charles Fellows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very witty

[Judy Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone who wishes to become familiar with the latest additions to the English language.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of all the funny dictionaries I have read, this is the least funny. I expected better from Graeme Garden.

[Stuart B. Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

strongly recommend that you do not read this book in public. Great fun, leading to spontaneous outbreaks of laughter and strange looks by the public.
A book to savour at regular intervals

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good fun. There’s one or two that went over my head, some that probably work better when read/performed and a few too many racist stereotypes that I could have done without being included.