British Library

image_pdfimage_print

San Fairy Ann

Rosy Hall is an ESRC-funded PhD student from Oxford University working with the BL’s Spoken English collections. She writes: The phrase ‘San Fairy Ann’ might sound familiar, perhaps conjuring up memories of Paul McCartney’s 1976 song, or Barbara Windsor’s 1965 comedy of the same name. But what does it actually… read more

A wigwam for a goose’s bridle

Rosy Hall is an ESRC-funded PhD student from Oxford University working with the BL’s Spoken English collections. She writes: One of the joys of cataloguing the Evolving English WordBank is discovering all the weird and wonderful phrases donated to the British Library by speakers from around the world. Researching their… read more