Ta Ra A Bit Our Kid

What does 'Chobblin' mean? What are 'Donnies'? If it's 'Black Over Bill's Mother's' what should you do? Where does the saying come from? All these questions and many more are answered in this humorous and engaging little book of how Brummies spoke and speak. containing sayings and phrases from recent history and much, much further back.Essential for the younger Brummie to understand their older relatives, and a book full of nostalgia for the 'old uns'. A treasure-trove of Brummie, Black Country and other slang used in Birmingham for centuries. An important repository for these fast - disappearing local gems. Read it, use them and keep our heritage language alive. Also a great gift for older Brummies. This Second Edition contains loads of extra Brummie phrases and is about 40% bigger!

What does 'Chobblin' mean? What are 'Donnies'? If it's 'Black Over Bill's Mother's' what should you do? Where does the saying come from? All these questions and many more are answered in this humorous and engaging little book of how Brummies spoke and speak. containing sayings and phrases from recent history and much, much further back.Essential for the younger Brummie to understand their older relatives, and a book full of nostalgia for the 'old uns'. A treasure-trove of Brummie, Black Country and other slang used in Birmingham for centuries. An important repository for these fast - disappearing local gems. Read it, use them and keep our heritage language alive. Also a great gift for older Brummies.

For readers of The Glass Castle and Wild, a stunning new memoir about family, loss and the struggle for a better future #1 International Bestseller Tara Westover was seventeen when she first set foot in a classroom. Instead of traditional lessons, she grew up learning how to stew herbs into medicine, scavenging in the family scrap yard and helping her family prepare for the apocalypse. She had no birth certificate and no medical records and had never been enrolled in school. Westover’s mother proved a marvel at concocting folk remedies for many ailments. As Tara developed her own coping mechanisms, little by little, she started to realize that what her family was offering didn’t have to be her only education. Her first day of university was her first day in school—ever—and she would eventually win an esteemed fellowship from Cambridge and graduate with a PhD in intellectual history and political thought.

If you are seeking adventures like sailing the seven seas, crossing deserts, or hiking in The Himalayas, well you won't get that far with me. But if you would like to visit The Black Country, have a few laughs along the way with a Black Country man born and bred, then you are most welcome. So, come join me while I share a few anecdotes, an assortment of stories with a selection of poems thrown in. (Oh, and I have a time machine). Don't worry I'll bring you safely back home again Harry Taylor

'definite shades of One Day...emotionally intelligent and beautifully written' - Daily Mail Can your final fling become your Happy Ever After? When Jo Coulson finds herself single again in her late thirties, she finally resigns her membership to Last of the Hopeless Romantics, fully intending to tackle midlife and motherhood alone. First, she plans one legendary last fling... In walks Harry Inchbold, and the connection is electric. Passionate, unpredictable and messily divorced, Harry is the perfect antidote to cosy coupledom. Known as The Sinner, drama follows him around with a clapper board. Harry's favourite holiday hideaway in the wilds of South Shropshire puts the mud and fun into the perfect dirty weekend. But at the cottage Harry reveals a very different side, melting Jo's resolve. What better combination to face an uncertain future than two cynics who have learned from their mistakes?Together they make a pact; 'same time next year'; they can promise no more than that. Through life's most stressful decade, Harry and Jo return to the Shropshire hills for one weekend each year to rediscover passion and make peace. As career, family and home crises all threaten to bring them unstuck, the cottage is their glue. Here, different rules apply: the day to day world is not allowed to intrude.With Harry and Jo, however, it's only a matter of time before rules get broken. As real life gets increasingly complicated, can they keep renewing their promise?

What is "normal?" That's the question an eager young scientist, narrating her very first book, hopes to answer. Unfortunately, her exceedingly "normal" subject--an orangutan named Norman--turns out to be exceptionally strange. He speaks English, sleeps in a bed, and goes bananas over pizza! What's a "normal" scientist to do? A humorous look at the wackiness that makes us all special.

This fascinating collection of over 200 picture postcards provides a nostalgic insight into the changing history of Birmingham during the period 1900-1945. For over a quarter of this time Britain was at war and the political and social changes experienced were immense, not least in Birmingham, a major industrial city. Each image is accompanied by a detailed caption, bringing the past alive and describing many aspects of life in the city, including chapters on wartime, work, sport, shopping, entertainment and celebrations, providing a vital record of vanished vistas and past practices. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of the area, and also awaken memories of a bygone time for those who worked or lived in the "Second City".