Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (20th edition)

A wonderful book to dip into and browse. Sadly, my reference use of it has largely been superseded by looking stuff up on the Web.

A delightful book, maybe I shall keep it in the smallest room for a while - it's great for browsing for a few minutes now and then.

I bought this after I discovered, when I attempted to look up "mellifluous doctor" in the 1999 edition, that it wasn't there. The Catholic Encyclopedia on Google told me more than I wanted to know about St Bernard, but as I expected, the older edition had an entry naming him.

Fascinating links between everyday phrases and history, not actually useful as such, but its easy to lose a morning flicking from article to article. Occasionally useful as a crossword reference!

The Wikipedia of the previous generations, a delightful compendium of trivia, essential knowledge, mythology, common phrases, and on and on and on. Nothing but interesting tidbits of knowledge to get lost in for long periods of time. Skews a bit to the British and the Victorian, but the updaters

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have done a fine job, and left all the historical goodies in. Indispensable is a good word, especially for writers and historians.

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A great find in my grandmother's old collection. 21st edition. A book plate on the inner front cover from "1891 St, Mark's School Southborough Sacred Study" with the signature of someone with the last name of Scott. A nice reference, but I rarely pull it down but for special purposes. A nice

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compendium!

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something that helps me greatly in the office

Remarkable book and very useful if you write.

My 1927 edition has timeless curiosities but also is a reminder of how language changes and how some phrases plunge into disuse. Dusty old volume that makes me sneeze.

Had to seek this out after seeing it mentioned by Terry Pratchett as one of his valued reference sources.