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They say you can't judge a book by its cover—but its title can tell you more than you ever needed to know! Amazing, illuminating, and gut-bustingly funny, Bizarre Books is the wonderfully twisted product of more than two decades of determined searching in forgotten corners of out-of-the-way libraries and through the literary detritus of eclectic private collections. It is certain to delight every true fan of trivia and the patently absurd.
This is an illustrated book of lists, a mix of facts and trivia on areas of human achievement and the natural world.
Russell Ash has trawled parish registers and censuses going back 900 years to compile the first ever complete book of breathtakingly unlikely-but-true British names. It features an incredible and diverse range of totally genuine names, evoking everything from body parts (Dick Brain), sex (Matilda Suckcock), illness (Barbaray Headache) and toilet functions (Peter Piddle) to food (Hazel Nutt), animals (Minty Badger) and places (Phila Delphia). Every single one has been checked for authenticity and its source is given, as well as extra notes where further fascinating illumination is possible. The book provides a rigorously researched yet laugh-out-loud overview of Britain's eccentricity through the ages. And in this fully revised, expanded and enhanced paperback edition, it is no exaggeration to say that it's Pottier, Fartier and Knobbier than ever before.
Building on the phenomenal success of POTTY, FARTWELL AND KNOB, this new collection of extraordinary but true names goes a step further... In BUSTY, SLAG AND NOB END, Russell Ash has compiled real names from around the world that are really rude and are of places and products as well as people. The result of painstaking research, each name has been thoroughly checked and authenticated: you will marvel at the range of naughty nomenclature and hoot at the unwitting innuendo. From Harriet Nicewonger (born Derbyshire c.1876) and Connie Lingus (resident of Indiana, USA) to Dick Swinger (born Switzerland c.1842) and Blo Job (US immigrant from Slovakia, born c.1897); from Titty Ho in Northamptonshire to Dildo in Newfoundland; and from Cock Soup to Pee Cola - this compendium of sauciness is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.
Out of the tens of thousands of books published every year, a significant proportion are unintentionally funny or just plain loopy. Bringing these choice works together, Russell Ash and Brian Lake discuss the extraordinary titles: 'Aeroplane Designing For Amateurs', 'How To Draw a Straight Line' and 'Phone Calls From The Dead'.
Traces the development of Leighton's work, from early sketches to the later large-scale paintings and sculpture. Includes 40 reproductions of Leighton's work.
'Such was Catherine Morland at ten. At fifteen appearances were mending; she began to curl her hair and long for balls...' (Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey) 'Will it jerk me off?' (Margaret Thatcher, inspecting a field gun in the Falklands) 'You know, animals are very psychic. I mean, the least sign of danger and my pussy's hair stands on end' (Mrs Slocombe, Are You Being Served?) From the unwittingly filthy, to the gleefully subversive, double entendres have been making us laugh for centuries. In this hilarious survey, Russell Ash uncovers some of history's dirtiest double meanings. From the smut lurking between the polished lines of literature's most revered writers, to the public innuendo accidents that have tripped up even the most respected of politicians, right through to the sly innuendo that has characterized some of our best-loved comedies, IT JUST SLIPPED OUT has it all.
Burne-Jones, the Pre-Raphaelite painter and leader of the Aesthetic Movement is celebrated in this biographical, art and reference title that reproduces many of his works. Born in Birmingham, the son of a craftsman, Burne-Jones showed precocious ability at school. At Oxford University he met William Morris where they established a mutual interest in art. Their first important influence was that of one of the founding fathers of Pre-Raphaelitism, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with whom in 1857 they painted murals at the Oxford Union. After Oxford his painting career developed and he rapidly established his position as the leader of the Aesthetic Movement. Burne-Jones also worked for Morris's firm, supplying designs for stained glass, tapestries, tiles and other products, including his own illustrations for the celebrated Kelmscott Chaucer.
Provides statistics on what happens to the world in a single day, in such areas as geology, biology, technology, and culture.
Ash presents unusual facts and comparisons about a variety of topics, including human population, travel, buildings, and forces of nature. Full-color illustrations.