It’s not a new book or even a new idea, but my own little book: Glossary is a diversion, hopefully not a contraflow. It’s available on Amazon, and briefly, it is a collection of Gloucestershire place names given new meanings by me.

I am publishing some selected pages here over the next few weeks. If you would like a copy of the entire collection, you can find it on Amazon.

I suppose this is my version of sharing a joke. For the uninitiated, it is a great pastime when travelling: to give new meanings to place names. Try it!

Bagendon
The storage of excessive numbers of supermarket plastic bags. The place of their storage.

Bagstone
That odd item you take on holiday, packed in the suitcase never to come out. Even when you return home it stays there and you find it when you pack again for the next holiday and off it goes again. So a near translation would be “never to be used”, a bit like raw chicken beyond its sell-by date.

Bibury
The walk of a tourist who does not understand what he/she should be doing, or seeing, or indeed why they are where they are at all. Involves walking slowly in one direction and then in another random direction, even the person doing the walking does not understand exactly why or in which direction they might be going.It’s a sorry sight. Pity them. Common in the Cotswolds.Japanese tourists avoid by following a flag which is even stranger and could even be described as sinister.

Bibstone
See Bagstone, this one refers to a child’s toy. It’s possible to find a bibstone many years later still in its orginal packaging when it could be worth something, but is never valued at the time. It’s only worth something as everyone else in the world has thrown theirs away.