The UK is a small country: the entry in this book on John O'Groats points out that its distance from Land's End is some 600 miles (955 km). Yet within that small compass what a diversity of history, tradition, culture, society, administration and the rest we have evolved and still offer to a perplexed world; still offer to our perplexed selves often enough too. An adult native's first reaction on seeing this little volume will likely be along the lines of teaching granny to suck eggs: but put yourself in the position of a visiting student, or of a grandfather with an inquisitive 12‐year‐old grandson, and suddenly it becomes a very useful little dictionary.
I can probably best define it as a dictionary of all the things in the British way of life we take for granted; the kind of thing we all assimilated as we grew up, from newspapers or from our own experience, from parents or teachers, or even from reference books on occasion. The compiler's own definition is: “… a selection of terms and references which illustrate central institutional/structural aspects of British national life”. It includes aspects of: politics and government; law, economics and industry; education; the media; religion and social welfare (the publisher's juxtaposition of categories); health and housing; and leisure and transport. Opening at random, to give a flavour of the coverage, one finds entries on: blue‐collar worker, co‐education, eventing, inquest, May day, Orangemen, Queensberry rules, social security, vested interests, Zebra crossings. No statistics are quoted, but there are a very large number of entries covering such topics as these. Browsing through I am impressed by the range of terms covered.
The entries themselves are concise, clear and accurate; ample cross‐referencing is made by the use of capital letters within entries; so, a typical entry (which also demonstrates the range of related terms included reads:
Housemaster/mistress (education) The teacher who is responsible for the organisation of a house principally in a boys' or girls' boarding school, but also in some state and other independent schools.
Very occasionally a view might be expressed or implied, even by a single word, as in the entry for cabinet government: “The arguable view that collective cabinet government survives …” A few of the definitions go barely beyond those to be found in a standard dictionary (for example of lecture: “A talk or course of instruction on a given topic before an audience or class”), but in almost every case they elaborate at least slightly on a basic definition to clarify each term or set it in context. The great majority of entries go beyond that with fuller explanation of at least a few sentences.
John Oakland is a senior lecturer in English at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and he has brought his academic background and his experience of non‐British students together to produce a new edition of what is, in the right circumstances, a very useful little book. The right circumstances will certainly be overseas students trying to get to grips with contemporary British life, whether in visiting or reading the British press, as well as younger secondary pupils in Great Britain simply growing up and learning or more specifically following modern studies courses. This will be a useful addition to stock for any educational establishment welcoming overseas students, and for many school libraries.
