Book Launch & Signing Review

The signing and launch of a new humorous book about everyday language is hailed an unprecedented success by a national chain of book stores.

On Saturday 10th October 2009 Phil Woods of Connah’s Quay and Steve Smith of Lancaster unleashed to the world the power of their take on the English language.

The book launch was held at Borders in Cheshire Oaks from 6.30pm and during the day a very successful signing session was held which far exceeded the expectations of Borders. The day finished with Beat About The Bush being the second best selling product and the best selling book, beaten only by football trading cards.

‘Beat About the Bush: The Funny Side of Language’ looks at all the funny things we say in everyday life without giving them much thought. We all say things like ‘Don’t count your chickens before they hatch’ and ‘It’s a different kettle of fish’ but we rarely count chickens and most people use a kettle for water, not fish! There are plenty of books that look at the origins of such sayings but none quite like this book, as Phil and Steve look at the literal translations, and that alone makes us all think before we speak.

At the launch Phil and Steve talked about the book’s history and gave a short stand up routine talking about funny things we all say. These included a mix of material from the book and some brand new material. They shot down in flames the usefulness of slippers with no backs, and they asked why people reply ‘Ooh anywhere nice?’ when told by a friend that they’ve just been on holiday. Phil and Steve said: “No, we got the ‘Nightmare Holidays in War Zones’ brochure and booked two weeks in Beirut on a building site overlooking a mortuary. It was terrible and we’ve already booked for next year.”

Borders put on a magnificent event and have invited Phil and Steve back to do more signings, as well as promising to tell other branches of the book’s high demand. Phil and Steve would like to thank everyone who attended and hope that everyone enjoys having a laugh at their new book.

‘Beat About the Bush: The Funny Side of Language’ is available at Borders in Cheshire Oaks, as well as online at Amazon, Play, WH Smith, Waterstone’s and many other sites. It is also available at many high street book stores.

TODAY IS LAUNCH DAY

Well, many hello's to you all on this fine Saturday morningtide. It is 7.01am and the larks are singing in celebration of our book launch day, well I think that's what they are singing about!!!

So all are invited to either come and meet us during the day from 11am - 5.30pm when  we will be signing copies of our book and/or at 6.30pm for the official launch. The event is at Borders in Cheshire Oaks, near Ellesmere Port on the Wirral. It just a stones throw from Liverpool, well actually it's not, if you could throw a stone from Liverpool to Cheshire Oaks you would be snapped up by the UK Hammer Association of Throwing (or HAT for short).

We'd love to see you there. Have a happy day and enjoy the larks.

A post about a chat about the book about a bush

We recently had a chat about what's in the book, and even filmed it for your delight. Steve talks funny and Phil gets all befuddled about America, but it's still a handy cut-out-and-keep summary of 'Beat About The Bush: The Funny Side of Language'.

See it on our YouTube site here.

We're rather excited about Saturday's book signing and launch at Borders, Cheshire Oaks. While we're busy signing books our chat will be playing on a TV in the store, and that will be followed by some funny out-takes we put together. We can't promise that Denis Norden or Anne Robinson will be there to talk you through our mistakes... mainly because they won't be.

That's all from 11am, and at 6.30pm we have the official launch of the book. We'll be talking about the background and history of the book, performing a sketch, making one of our infamous recipes, and taking questions from the floor (and from people on it).

We hope you can join us on Saturday for the signing or the launch or both. Please have a look at our YouTube site too, which will continue to grow.