Philip Gooden

The English language that is spoken by one billion people around the world is a linguistic mongrel, its vocabulary a diverse mix resulting from centuries of borrowing from other tongues. From the Celtic languages of pre-Roman Britain to Norman French; from the Vikings' Old Scandinavian to Persian, Sanskrit, Algonquian, Cantonese and Hawaiian, amongst a host of others, we have enriched our modern language with such words as tulip, slogan, doolally, avocado, moccasin, ketchup and ukulele. This book explores the intriguing and unfamiliar stories behind scores of familiar words that the English language has filched; in so doing so, it also sheds fascinating light on the wider history of the development of the English we speak today. Full of etymological nuggets to intrigue and delight the reader, this is a gift book for word buffs to cherish as cerebrally stimulating as it is entertaining."

May We Borrow Your Language?

A Christmas Carol

Who would write who had anything better to do? queried Lord Byron rhetorically, and in this anthology, Philip Gooden finds hundreds of illuminating anecdotes about writers in support of this pithy remark. The stories tell us about the things writers got up to when not at their typewriters, from how Elizabethan playwright Ben Johnson escaped the gallows after having killed a man, to the first meeting between Anais Nin and Henry Miller.

The Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes

David Field

Ec Fremantle

A HWA Short Story Collection - Book Three 'The drama, intrigue, and clashing contrasts of Tudor times brought vividly to life.' Imogen Robertson Immerse yourself in the Tudor period through a diverse collection of informed and entertaining short stories narratives. Read about some of your favourite characters from established series, or be introduced to new writers in the genre. The stories in Royal Blood bring the Tudor era richly to life, presenting suspense, rivalry, espionage and historical drama. This stunning new collection, brought to you by the Historical Writers' Association, also includes interviews with each author. Find out more about their writing processes and what attracts them to the Tudor world. Royal Blood is a must read for all fans of historical fiction. Authors & Stories Featured in Royal Blood Judith Arnopp - 'No Other Will Than His' Katherine Howard David Field - One for the Road EC Fremantle - The Sum of Me Philip Gooden - Exit Ghost Michael Jecks - The Earl's Purse John Pilkington - A False Hawksman Peter Tonkin - A Palpable Hit Steven Veerapen - Lantern and Light Michael Ward - The North-East Passage

A HWA Short Story Collection

Royal Blood

Peter Lewis

Idiomantics is a unique exploration of the world of idiomatic phrases. The very etymology of the word 'idiom' reveals what's so endlessly fascinating about the wide range of colourful phrases we use in everyday speech: their peculiarity. They're peculiar both in the sense of being particular or unique to the culture from which they originate, and in the sense of being downright odd. To cite three random examples - from American English, Dutch and Italian - what on Earth are a snow job, a monkey sandwich story, and Mr Punch's secret? Fascinating and illuminating, Idiomantics explains all... The ideal gift for word buffs and in fact, anyone who enjoys a good yarn, this playful book looks at 12 groups of idioms around the world, looking at subjects such as fun and games, gastronomic delights and the daily grind.

Idiomantics: The Weird and Wonderful World of Popular Phrases

Ever had a Hitchcockian experience (in the shower perhaps?!) or met someone with a distinctly Ortonesque outlook on life? There are hundreds of words derived from real people who are famous - or infamous - enough to give their stamp to a movement, a way of thinking or acting, a style or even a mood. Name Dropping? is an essential guide to the better known or more intriguing of these terms from figures in politics, sport, and the arts. A valuable, interesting and often humorous resource for those looking for definitions or simply browsing for pleasure. Entries are listed alphabetically with full explanations, examples from the press and other media, guidance on usage and a 'Pretentiousness Index.'

A No-Nonsense Guide to the Use of Names in Everyday Language

Name Dropping

A no-nonsense guide to words and phrases from other languages.

A No-nonsense Guide to Words and Phrases from Other Languages

Faux Pas?

In 1601, heading across the Wiltshire Downs to perform one of Shakespeare's plays, Nick Revill and his fellow actors encounter hostility, a tense family drama, long-hidden secrets, and a series of murders that Nick sets out to investigate.

A Shakespearean Murder Mystery

The Pale Companion

Third in the entertaining adventures of Shakespearean actor and sleuth, Nick Revill. It is midsummer in the year 1601. Nick Revill and his fellow actors of the company known as the Chamberlain's Men are journeying across the Wiltshire Downs for a country-house presentation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It should be a pleasant well-paid jaunt to celebrate a noble marriage, but instead the players find themselves in the midst of a tense family atmosphere, somehow linked to the presence of the household's sinister steward. Very soon Nick finds that the Dream has turned into a nightmare, where murder appears commonplace, and before too long he must fight to save his own life against the ancient backdrop of Stonehenge...

No 3

The Salisbury manuscript

The Chrysalids

Brodie's Notes on John Wyndham's

'Another clever criminal plunge into history' Guardian On a foggy morning in 1602, a boyhood friend of Nick Revill arrives in London. When Peter Agate announces that he wants to try his hand at acting, what can Nick do but offer him a part with his own company, the Chamberlain's Men, who are putting on a private production of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida for the lawyers of Middle Temple. Yet within days Peter Agate is dead, stabbed to death at Nick's lodgings - the beginning of a sequence of violent deaths, each somehow implicating Nick himself. To avoid the hangman's noose Nick must discover the real murderer among a cast of suspects, including an aristocratic brother and sister, a troublemaker from a rival company and an ex-actor who once saw the Devil himself on stage... The fourth historical murder mystery in the Nick Revill series, set in the bustling theatrical world of William Shakespeare. Praise for Philip Gooden: 'Highly entertaining' Sunday Times 'The witty narrative, laced with puns and word play so popular in this period, makes this an enjoyable racy tale' Sunday Telegraph 'The book has much in common with the film Shakespeare in Love - full of colourful characters . . . but the book has an underlying darkness' Crime Time 'Historical mystery fans are in for a treat' Publishers Weekly

Book 4 in the Nick Revill series

Alms for Oblivion

Adapted stories with contemporary illustrations to introduce classical literature to a wider audience.

Great Expectations

'Another clever criminal plunge into history' Guardian Elizabeth I approaches the end of her illustrious reign, the plague is raging in London, and the Privy Council has ordered the theaters closed. Still, author Philip Gooden's fifth novel in the popular Shakespearean series brings us a great mystery as actor-sleuth Nick Revill and the Chamberlain's Men travel to Oxford, where a local physician, Dr. Hugh Fern, has commissioned a private performance of Romeo and Juliet. While Fern's motive is obscure-an attempt to reconcile two feuding families to the prospect of a marriage, perhaps; or maybe simply a ploy to get himself a role in the production-his fate is not. Indeed, he is decidedly dead, when his body is discovered during a performance at the Golden Cross Inn. No matter that the deceased lies inside a locked room or that the pestilence has followed the Chamberlain troupe from London, Revill is convinced Fern has not succumbed to natural causes. Nor is Fern's death the only one that rouses Revill's suspicions. The mysteries multiply as a strange band of men in cowls patrols the town at night, a simple carter meets a baffling end, and a corpse changes its shoes. The fifth Shakespearean murder mystery in the Nick Revill series, set during the reign of the formidable Elizabeth I. Praise for Philip Gooden: 'Highly entertaining' Sunday Times 'The witty narrative, laced with puns and word play so popular in this period, makes this an enjoyable racy tale' Sunday Telegraph 'The book has much in common with the film Shakespeare in Love - full of colourful characters . . . but the book has an underlying darkness' Crime Time 'Historical mystery fans are in for a treat' Publishers Weekly

Book 5 in the Nick Revill series

Mask of Night

Nicholas Nickleby

The Old Curiosity Shop

'Highly entertaining' Sunday Times It's the summer of 1604 and the Spanish are in London. Many years after the ill-fated Armada, they are negotiating a peace treaty with the English. Nick Revill's acting company is given a ceremonial role at the celebrations, but not everybody welcomes this outbreak of peace. In the shifting world of the court there are factions. In the Tower of London sits that implacable enemy of the Spanish, Sir Walter Raleigh, and he has friends on the outside who may try to sabotage the negotiations. Nick, meanwhile, is trying to get on with his playing. Invited by Shakespeare's rival, Ben Jonson, to take part in a masque at Somerset House where the Spanish are lodged, Nick is caught up in a conspiracy. During a rehearsal the courtier Sir Philip Blake dies an apparently accidental death when he tumbles from a 'Deus ex machina' chair which is lowering him to the stage The sixth Shakespearean murder mystery in the Nick Revill series, set during the reign of the formidable Elizabeth I. Praise for Philip Gooden: 'Another clever criminal plunge into history' Guardian 'The witty narrative, laced with puns and word play so popular in this period, makes this an enjoyable racy tale' Sunday Telegraph 'The book has much in common with the film Shakespeare in Love - full of colourful characters . . . but the book has an underlying darkness' Crime Time 'Historical mystery fans are in for a treat' Publishers Weekly

Book 6 in the Nick Revill series

An Honourable Murderer

Bernard Knight

Michael Jecks

Ian Morson

Medieval Murderers

Susanna Gregory

After an ancient leaden cross and skeletal remains are found in Glastonbury Abbey, the monks believe they are the remains of the legendary King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, but after the bones disappear at the hands of the mysterious Guardians, the monks are determined to retrieve the bones and return them to their final resting place.

King Arthur's Bones

'Highly entertaining' Sunday Times Midsummer 1601. Nick Revill and his fellow actors in the Chamberlain's Men are journeying across the Wiltshire Downs for a country-house presentation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It should be a pleasant, well-paid jaunt to celebrate a noble marriage, but things go wrong from the start. On a brief stopover in the market town of Salisbury, the locals make clear their dislike of actors by beating up Nick, a painful experience relieved only by his meeting with the local magistrate Adam Fielding and Fielding's beautiful daughter Kate. When the Chamberlain's Men arrive at their destination, Instede House, they enter a tense family atmosphere. Lord Elcombe is pushing his older son into a marriage that the son seems set against, while in the nearby woods a wild man called Robin talks in riddles of long-hidden family secrets. In another quarter of the great estate lodges a traveling band of fire-and-brimstone morality players called the Paradise Brothers. The first death, when it occurs, looks like suicide, but Nick isn't so sure, and he finds himself investigating alongside the company of Adam Fielding. Then a second murder happens right under Nick's nose . . .and turns the Dream into a nightmare. Praise for Philip Gooden: 'The witty narrative, laced with puns and word play so popular in this period, makes this an enjoyable racy tale' Sunday Telegraph 'The book has much in common with the film Shakespeare in Love - full of colourful characters . . . but the book has an underlying darkness' Crime Time 'Welcome to Elizabethan England where... Gooden will give you a gratifying taste of the danger and excitement of that lusty place and time' Publishers Weekly

Philip Gooden

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