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 just search for Glossary by Paul Davies.

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!

Cinderford
Another shortening, this time of the term ‘cinder-foot’ meaning overheated feet: sweaty feet.

Culkerton
Generic name for pocket detritus. Bits and pieces found in a Hucclecote which could have been there for years and may include a fruit gum with hair attached and an open packet of Refreshers. DNA is present.

Corse Lawn
The opposite to Avening. An area of so-called garden which will contain a large number of highly coloured plastic toys, swings and a dog pen. Probably a rope will hang from any tree branch and there’s likely to be a trampoline which will take up any available garden space. Nothing like grass grows within.

Cranham
A massive posh ‘faux pas’.  One of those moments where you really want to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Like when someone has eaten fish with the wrong knife ( OMG! ) at a dinner party, or someone farting in a lift at Waitrose. It’s obligatory to pretend that it’s simply has not happened.
It is acceptable to apologise later to one’s nearest and dearest in the car park, to clear the air so to speak: 
“ Sorry dear…Cranham”.  “ Oh dear Geoffrey! Was it last night’s fish?”