Wherever you go in the English-speaking world, there are linguistic riches from times past awaiting rediscovery. All you have to do is choose a location, find some old documents, and dig a little. In The Disappearing Dictionary, linguistics expert Professor David Crystal collects together delightful dialect words that either provide an insight into an older way of life, or simply have an irresistible phonetic appeal. Like a mirror image of The Meaning of Liff that just happens to be true, The Disappearing Dictionary unearths some lovely old gems of the English language, dusts them down and makes them live again for a new generation.b>dabberlick/b> [noun, Scotland]A mildly insulting way of talking about someone who is tall and skinny. 'Where's that dabberlick of a child?'b>fubsy/b> [adjective, Lancashire]Plump, in a nice sort of way. b>squinch /b>[noun, Devon]A narrow crack in a wall or a space between floorboards. 'I lost sixpence through a squinch in the floor'.
Chernobyl: the Zone of Exclusion. A ghostly place, deserted and forgotten for almost two decades; now inhabited by militia, shady scavengers, a few reckless scientists, and some elderly Ukrainian peasants . . . This is the eerie and dangerous world Inspector Arkady Renko must navigate if he is to find out the truth behind the death of one of Russias richest oligarchs. Pasha Ivanov has been found dead on the pavement outside his luxury high-rise apartment in Moscow. It seems like a straightforward suicide, but Renko, never one to take evidence at face value, refuses to drop the case, and there is something puzzling him: a mountain of salt found in Ivanovs wardrobe . . . Determined to look deeper into the circumstances of Ivanovs demise, he acquaints himself with this wealthy businessmans powerful and corrupt circle, until his investigations lead him to Chernobyls notorious Zone of Exclusion, where the body of Lev Timofeyev, Ivanovs former research partner, has been discovered in a contaminated cemetery . . . Masterfully crafted and told with extraordinary insight and imaginative breadth, the bestselling author of GORKY PARK brings us Renkos most beguiling and unusual adventure to date.
