Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of English Slang - Hardcover

Max Décharné's engaging book Vulgar Tongues is a spectacular feat, collating information from a mind-boggling range of sources - from jazz lyrics to dime novels, from 18th century brothel directories to 1960s criminal autobiographies. (Lynne Truss New Statesman 2016-12-16)

A fantastic book (Robert Elms BBC Radio London 2016-11-01)

I'm loving Max Décharné's alternative history of English slang, Vulgar Tongues, and plan to be using a lot of wonderful new swearwords! (Christopher Fowler)

A detailed delight ... The entertainment to be found within this etymology is legion ... Luckily for us, Décharné is a master of the manifold, who wields a light touch over a heavy amount of research ... Décharné's work ably demonstrates that the creation of slang is something hardwired in us, the need to mock suppression being the mother of its invention - one brilliant
argument for never keeping a civil tongue.

(Cathi Unsworth Fortean Times 2017-03-01)

Though he may not be a professional linguist, he has an infectious enthusiasm for the peculiarities of English vocabulary... The strength of Mr. Décharné's account is its zest (Wall Street Journal)

English slang is a field rich for tillage, as Max Décharné proves in Vulgar Tongues, a triumph of philological research and mordant social commentary...[it] never loses sight of slang's deeper cultural role (Washington Post)

Décharné, a musician and songwriter, has written extensively on music, crime and noir, and his great gift is to connect his encyclopedic knowledge of more recent slang to that of the past. His mind is a trivia-trap of the first order, and the book is a bracing historical tour of the lexicons of sex, prostitution, crime, alcohol, drugs, popular music and military slang. (Peter Sokolowski New York Times)

[Décharné's] great gift is to connect his encyclopedic knowledge of more recent slang to that of the past. His mind is a trivia trap of the first order, and the book is a bracing historical tour of the lexicons of sex, prostitution, crime, alcohol, drugs, popular music and military slang (Peter Sokolowski New York Times)

Décharné writes attentively and with authority about the ping-ponging of scenester phrases between genres, and from closed circles of cognoscentito the wider world ... This is a cabinet of curiosities, full of interest (Sam Leith TLS 2017-06-23)