The Dictionary of Posh
Incorporating the Fall and Rise of the Pails-Hurtingseaux Family
£14.99
(Not yet published)The Dictionary of Posh serves as an essential guide to the (ab)use of many English words by the decidedly up-market and the resultant — and endangered — language they speak: Posh.
Hugh Kellett hilariously captures the spirit and nuances of those who speak Posh and, allied with Oliver Preston's brilliantly accurate cartoons, this book is the key to understanding and interpreting this language — literally with tongue-in-cheek.
Hidden within normal English is a separate language still spoken by those born with silver spoons in their mouths. It’s called Posh. A word of English can be spelt the same but mean something completely different in Posh. If you say the word 'Mention' in English, people will understand 'Remark upon'; but in Posh this means a large house. Say 'Ace' and speakers of Posh will think you are referring to a cold thing one’s butler puts in one’s G&T.
Meet the author Hugh Kellett
Hugh Kellett studied languages at Oxford and has been playing around with words in London advertising agencies most of his life. The humorous potential of the English language, this mishmash of the tongues of our invaders, its crazy spellings, rich nuances and punny possibilities have become his abiding passion. His first book Glitzch! earned him many plaudits as a modern wit and wordsmith. Now, with The Dictionary of Posh, he turns his wordsmithery to something even more fundamental than history — to the English language itself — and, more precisely, the revelation and preservation of a rather exclusive version of it: Posh. The result is a restoration comedy of rumbustious proportions, and a book that will have you laughing out loud.
