All gong and no dinner - Nigel Rees

A celebration and search for the origins of homely words, phrases and sayings.

Over the last 30 years, hundreds of thousands of listeners of Quote.Unquote have written to Nigel Rees to share informal sayings from everyday life. These have taken the form of domestic catchphrases, family sayings (often unique to a particular family), household words, rhymes, old wives' sayings, and proverbial wisdom. Often they were accompanied by a request as to whether anybody else knew of them.

Nigel Rees has searched for the origins of hundreds of these conversation clippings, which together form the basis of All Gong and No Dinner. Illustrating every aspect of domestic life, from phrases to describe our less respectable neighbours, to the 'nannyisms' we heard as a child, they are guaranteed to raise a smile. Organised thematically, they take us from the kitchen to the bedroom to reveal profound truths and perfect nonsense.

This collection of sayings presents a rich, fascinating and humourous portrait of British family life. Beautifully designed and packaged, All Gong and No Dinner is the perfect gift for family members and language lovers.

'all gong and no dinner. All talk and no action. What you would say of a loud-mouthed person who was somewhat short on achievement. Michael Grosvenor Myer, Haddenham, Cambridgeshire (1999), produced a Texan variant: 'All hat and no cattle.''