In the spirit of An Exaltation of Larks and The Meaning of Liff, with a strong dose of “Down Under” humour, Thomas Bulford's English Companion is a word lover’s anthology that gives new life to many words and phrases no longer in daily usage, and redefines others to more closely represent modern meanings. The work is a lexical odyssey of puns and plays on words, infectious in spirit, which will charm word lovers everywhere.
The author has created the persona of Thomas Bulford, a turn of the (20th) century English cum Australian academic and eccentric who infuses his biting wit and whimsical persona throughout the book.
The book is divided into twenty-seven categories, such as, Women, Money, Science, and Countries, each with introductory text by Bulford expounding with his piercing observations on the state of the world and life, ala Oscar Wilde. This is then followed by an extensive array of words, their phonetic transcriptions, and his definitions, for example:
* Androgynous [an.droj.in.us] n. An ancient Greek thespian, famous for his ability to combine several roles into one.
* Cactoblastis (kak:toh`blaah!st’s) n. A terrifying form of diarrhoea.
* Pomace (pom:ays) n. An exceedingly clever, though rare, Englishman.
* Vision (vij’n) n. A word, naturally, with two eyes.
* Xylyl (?zy?:lill) n. Any word which can never be pronounced correctly the first or second time – by when it’s too late, anyway - and which, coincidentally, represents a very small class of words that are apparently vowel-free.
The result is a language affectionado’s garden of delights with over 1,600 words humorously redefined. There are lots of plays on words and double entendres, which will appeal to anyone who likes words, language, or cryptic crosswords.
If you'd like to verify these over-the-top comments, go to http://imaginalworks.googlepages.com.
You can also arrange for the author to write a personal dedication in the book for you.
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