JONATHON GREEN is a lexicographer, that is a dictionary maker, specialising in slang, about which he has been compiling dictionaries, writing and broadcasting since 1984. He has also written a history of lexicography. After working on his university newspaper he joined the London 'underground press' in 1969, working for most of the then available titles, such as Friends, IT and Oz. He has been publishing books since the mid-1970s, spending the next decade putting together a number of dictionaries of quotations, before he moved into what remains his primary interest, slang. Jonathon's slang work has reached its climax, but he trusts not its end, with the publication in 2010 of Green's Dictionary of Slang, a three-volume, 6,200-page dictionary 'on historical principles' offering some 110,000 words and phrases, backed up by around 410,000 citations or usage examples. The book covers all anglophone countries and its timeline stretches from around 1500 up to the present day. For those who prefer something less academic, he published the Chambers Slang Dictionary, a single volume book, in 2008. Website: http://jonathongreen.co.uk The Dabbler: http://thedabbler.co.uk/ (as Mister Slang) Twitter: @misterslangThe Timelines of Slang: http://thetimelinesofslang.tumblr.com/
By turns bawdy, sweary and irreverent, this book . . . is a fascinating look at how centuries of slang came to inform all aspects of social life, how it was used, and how much of it still lingers. * History Revealed * Few lexicographers are lucky enough to have both endlessly pleasurable work and the talent to write amusingly about [slang]. Jonathon Green is one . . . Glorious . . . Lovers of language should be grateful to those who create slang, and to those few like Mr Green who make it their work to open this window into the psyche for the benefit of all. * The Economist * A smorgasbord of some of slang's choicer, tangier delights, given in such abundance that it overspills the table . . . if you're up for an adventure through the back alleys of English, The Stories of Slang will not disappoint -- Kory Stamper * Times Literary Supplement *