A fun-run through the history of some of the odder words and phrases in common everyday use in (British) English, arranged around the activities that might make up a typical day (meals, home, work, leisure, sport, going out, etc.). It doesn't go very deep, and it's basically just a loosely-linked list of keywords and explanations — there's no kind of argument or historical development going on, so it's a book you are obviously meant to dip in and out of as the fancy takes you.

The examples are all slanted towards England, with occasional brief mention of Scottish, Australian and US regional expressions, but a strong slant towards Oxford-related topics: there are frequent references to Lewis Carroll and Philip Pullman and the sports vocabulary includes detailed discussion of real tennis, racquets and croquet as well as the more mainstream rugby, cricket and (grudgingly?) soccer. But no rowing.

This seems to be aimed at people who are curious about the history of English, but have never actually studied it, and I'm sure someone like that would find it very entertaining. I can imagine that it might also be useful source of classroom material for schoolteachers, but if you have any kind of prior knowledge then it's likely that at least 80% of his examples will be stuff you already know, so definitely don't buy it as a gift for English graduates.

A strange book to turn into an audiobook, but it sort of works, and would be a good one for listeners with a very short attention span! ( )