Romps, Tots and Boffins
The Strange Language of News
Will be published approx. on 19. September 2013
Book
Hardback
144 pages
978-1-909653-43-6 (ISBN)
Description
Financial Times Gift Books of the Year; Sunday Times Books of the Year - Humour Roundup; Spectator Books of the Year - chosen by Matthew Parris; Where is drunken vandalism always a 'booze-fuelled rampage'?; Where is everyone in uniform a 'hero' and every thief 'heartless'?; Where are market towns always 'bustling' and villages 'sleepy'?; If you have ever picked up a paper, you will have come across 'journalese', the language of news. It's a strange language, a little like English. Without it, how would our intrepid journalists be able to describe a world in which innocent bystanders look on in horror, where tots in peril are saved by have-a-go heroes, and where troubled stars lash out in foul-mouthed tirades?; Robert Hutton has been working around native journalese speakers for two decades, living as one of them and learning their ways, and now he has made their secrets available to the public for the first time. When he first began collecting examples online, he provoked a 'Twitter storm', and was 'left reeling' by the 'scores' of examples that 'flooded in'.
He realized that phrases which started as shorthand to help readers have become a dialect that is often meaningless or vacuous to non-journalese speakers.; In a courageous attempt both to wean journalists off their journalese habit, and provide elucidation for the rest of us, Romps, Tots and Boffins catalogues the highs and lows of this strange language, celebrating the best examples ('test-tube baby', 'mad cow disease'), marvelling at the quirky ('boffins', 'frogmen') and condemning the worst ('rant', 'snub', 'sirs'). It's a 'must-read' 'page-turner' that may 'cause a stir', 'fuel controversy', or even 'spark' 'tough new rules' in newsrooms.; Shortlisted for the Political Humour Book of the Year at the PaddyPower Political Book Awards 2014.
He realized that phrases which started as shorthand to help readers have become a dialect that is often meaningless or vacuous to non-journalese speakers.; In a courageous attempt both to wean journalists off their journalese habit, and provide elucidation for the rest of us, Romps, Tots and Boffins catalogues the highs and lows of this strange language, celebrating the best examples ('test-tube baby', 'mad cow disease'), marvelling at the quirky ('boffins', 'frogmen') and condemning the worst ('rant', 'snub', 'sirs'). It's a 'must-read' 'page-turner' that may 'cause a stir', 'fuel controversy', or even 'spark' 'tough new rules' in newsrooms.; Shortlisted for the Political Humour Book of the Year at the PaddyPower Political Book Awards 2014.
Reviews / Votes
"great joy from Robert Hutton's Romps, Tots and Boffins. Never has the weird language of headlines been so wittily defined."--Libby Purves, 'books of the year', The Times; "Robert Hutton...has set himself up as the Dr Johnson of this strange, widely read, hardly spoken, language."--Matthew Engel, Financial Times; "I'm loving a little book just out by my fellow political journalist Rob Hutton. It's called Romps, Tots and Boffins: The Strange Language of News but is so much more than a hilarious compendium of the ghastly cliche to which our trade is prone. "--Matthew Parris, The Times; "An essential guide to finding out what you are reading about. Some people may dismiss this as a 'loo book' but, actually, it's so much more."--Ann Treneman, The Times; "A right romp"--Paul Dietrich, The Metro; "A fascinating code-breaker of the cliches, inanities and banalities which fill our newspapers. Or, if you prefer, 'News Secrets Revealed Leaving Bosses Shamefaced'. I'm not sure I dare write another word."--Nick Robinson; "Finally, I understand what my fellow journalists are writing about."--Simon Hoggart; "Long journey to Lib Dem Conference enlivened by Robert Hutton's journalese book, Romps, Tots + Boffins - hilarious, wonderful, + very true - a mini classic"--Andrew Sparrow, Guardian Politics blogger; "Very funny new book by Robert Hutton - "Romps, Tots + Boffins: the strange language of news" - a must-read page-turner"--Iain Martin, former editor of the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday; "For readers, it promises to explain what journalists really mean. And for journalists, it also provides a guide to some of the hackneyed, arcane and cliched phrases that are probably best avoided."--Axegrinder, Press Gazette; "an amusing dictionary of arcane hack-speak"--Michael Deacon, The Telegraph; "The world of journalism was rocked to its foundations last night as a top newsman claimed to have discovered the secret of 'journalese'." --John Rentoul, The IndependentMore details
Edition
Anniversary edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Edition type
Special edition
Product notice
With printed dust jacket
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 185 mm
Width: 116 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
211 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-909653-43-6 (9781909653436)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2013
Elliott & Thompson
€10.49
Available for download
Person
Robert Hutton has been UK political correspondent for Bloomberg since 2004; previously, he worked at the Mirror and Financial Times. Having read Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science at Edinburgh University, he is believed to be the only member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery to have built a rugby-playing robot. Arguably his most notable contribution to journalism has been the introduction of the 'news sandwich' to the political lexicon. He lives in south east London with his wife and sons.