A perfect gift book for young and old, this is accepted worldwide as the authoritative guide to speaking Bristolian. Within two years of the publication of A Dictionary of Bristle the Bristolian word 'lush' was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. It has been responsible for a whole new generation of Bristolians reclaiming their distinctive dialect.
Harry Stoke and Vinny Green first launched A Dictionary of Bristle in 2003 to celebrate the remarkable success of their website thatbebristle.co.uk, a hilarious spoof news site with a passing similarity to the Bristol Evening Post's thisisbristol.com. At its peak, the website enjoyed astonishing success and the Dictionary was originally published to help readers understand the nuances of the Bristolian words and phrases. The website is long gone, but the Dictionary goes from strength to strength.
For this edition, authors Harry Stoke and Vinny Green completely revised, updated, and expanded both the original Dictionary and the handy phrasebook section to include reference points such as Carboot Circus.
And with so many people now wanting to move to Bristol, Harry and Vinny have also developed a Bristolian Citizenship Test. Those wanting to relocate to the city from outside the area will be expected to score at least 75 per cent when answering the 24 questions.
Here’s an example of the sort of question ‘incomers’ will be asked:
Is the M Shed… 1) Something that wasn’t named properly? 2) My Shed with a letter missing? 3) A museum of Bristol located on the historic Harbourside? 4) A place where M People keep their lawnmower?
A Dictionary of Bristle, one of the city’s most popular books, is dedicated to the late Professor Colin Pillinger CBE from Kingswood for his services to Bristolian.