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  • Dent's Modern Tribes

  • The Secret Languages of Britain
  • By: Susie Dent
  • Narrated by: Susie Dent
  • Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

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Dent's Modern Tribes

By: Susie Dent
Narrated by: Susie Dent
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Publisher's Summary

Learn how to decode the private languages that are swapped around us every day - amongst cabbies and paramedics, soap stars and comedians, cricketers and barristers - in Susie Dent's unique and witty guide to Britain's modern tribes.

Did you know that a soldier's biggest social blunder is called 'jack brew' - making yourself a cuppa without making one for anyone else? That twitchers have an expression for a bird that can't be identified - LBJ (the letters stand for little brown job)? Or that builders call plastering the ceiling 'doing Lionel Richie's dancefloor'? Susie Dent does.

Ever wondered why football managers all speak the same way, what a cabbie calls the Houses of Parliament, or how ticket inspectors discreetly request backup? We are surrounded by hundreds of tribes, each speaking its own distinct slanguage of colourful words, jokes and phrases, honed through years of conversations on the battlefield, in A&E, backstage, or at 10,000 feet in the air.

Susie Dent has spent years interviewing hundreds of professionals, hobbyists and enthusiasts, and the result is an idiosyncratic phrasebook like no other. From the Freemason's handshake to the publican's banter, Dent's Modern Tribes takes us on a whirlwind tour of Britain, decoding its secret languages and, in the process, finds out what really makes us all tick.

©2016 Susie Dent (P)2016 John Murray Press

What listeners say about Dent's Modern Tribes

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Packed full of very British Tribes

If you like words and lexicography this book is definitely for you! I enjoyed the book overall though the book is so packed I kinda needed some white space processing time between segments in I hadn’t been driving most of the time whilst listening I could have paused in between. Excellently read by Susie, I love a book read by it’s author on a topic they are obviously passionate about.

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Brilliant

I loved this book. So much info, so I'll definitely listen again. Well read by Susie 👍👍

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    3 out of 5 stars

Taught me a lot.

I have always been curious about language. This book answers a lot of questions.
Now I am less likely to miss the joke between others.

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    4 out of 5 stars

taught me a few things

while Susie may not be the most invigorating narrator, her love of words rings through as you listen to this book. great value

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