An enjoyable and informative book, that takes the speech of British people, area by area, summing up its vocabulary, accent and general tone. Research for the book was conducted via the BBC nationwide 'Voices' survey in 2004, and already, many of its observations are out of date. Language is changing more quickly than ever, as industries wither, and people increasingly move round the country, needing to communicate outside their own familiar geographically restricted zone. This does not mean that it is becoming impoverished, but the changes formerly noticed from village to village, even from street to street in certain towns, are very much less evident. So while this book remains in many ways topical, it's also a record of a particular moment in history, and none the less interesting for that. ( )

I started reading this on holiday and never finished it. I put a page from the Witney Gazette in the book as a marker at page 126. It (the Witney Gazette) was dated September 20th 2006. Also inserted in the book is a cutting from the Canary Islands Island Connection newspaper, 30th September 2006, with an article on `Gomera's whistled language honoured'. So, Sherlock, yes, I got up to page 126 and I was on holiday in Tenerife in September 2006. ( )