John Christopher - The Death of Grass

oscillate:move from one side to the other and back

spooned out:fed roughly, simply, as if to a child

crack-up:collapse

bolt-hole:hiding place

hauteur:haughtiness of manner

UNESCO:United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

feel the pinch:suffer hardship

out of key:not in harmony with what is happening

off his rocker:mad (slang)

worriter:worrier (dialect)

mesh:engage

balloon’s up, The:The crisis has occurred.

true-blue:loyal

game, set and match:the final game in the final set, which clinches the victory (tennis)

millennium:one thousand years

pipe-line:channel of communication

palace revolution:having limited effects, not changing the ultimate power

washing his hands:keeping himself clean (not being held responsible for the shedding of blood)

cinema organ:in cinemas of the period (1950s) there was frequently an interlude in which an organist played music

court-martial:trial of a member of the Armed Forces, conducted by officers, for offences against military law

ditch:abandon (slang)

edged:sharp, nervous

urbs in rure: town in country, that is, an urban and rural area

Vanguard:popular make of car in the 1950s

Austin:popular make of car

chattels:goods, possessions

jaywalkers:casual pedestrians ignoring traffic while crossing the road

ammo:abbreviation for ammunition, bullets

Bisley shot:expert marksman; Bisley is a village in Surrey where the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association is held.

Advance the guards:the ordering of a regiment into action

clay-pipes:targets in a rifle range at a fairground

Citroen:large car, popular at the time

wind-up (to have the):very frightened

just the job:exactly right

“Teddy-Bears’ Picnic”:popular song of the period reflecting childish innocence

Benzedrine:drug that stimulates the heart and causes sleeplessness

posted:signposted

gatehouse:small building in which the signalman would operate the signals and the gates at the level crossing

Napoleon:Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), great French soldier and Emperor, finally defeated at Waterloo (1815)

Superman:the famous cartoon character of superhuman strength and moral commitment to the law

high term:an exaggeration

bunk-up:help somebody up by bending down so that he/she can climb on your back

blackthorn:the sloe, a thorny shrub that has white flowers and small black fruit

Bizerta:port in Libya, scene of much fighting between the British and the Italian/German forces in World War II.

tail-end Charlie:in the rear (of a convoy of cars)

phlegm:calm nature

Skipper:leader

Eton:famous public school founded by Henry VI in 1440 to prepare scholars for Cambridge

Borstal:one of a number of institutions where young criminals are detained and given reformatory training

Bow bells:the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, a church in Cheapside, London.

blowing the gaff:revealing a secret (slang)

Vesuvius:active volcano near Naples in Italy

Dunkirk (spirit):typifying the courage of all those who saved the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1940 when it was overrun by the Germans. They were evacuated in all the small boats that could be mustered.

Nero:Roman Emperor (AD 37–68), said to have fiddled while Rome burned. A brutal tyrant.

custodians:policemen, guardians

toll-gate:bar or gate across a road where taxes had to be paid by road-users

customs house:where customs duties are collected at a seaport

Hastings, Battle of:where William the Conqueror defeated the Saxons under King Harold (1066)

Babel (tower of):In the Book of Genesis the people of Babylon tried to build a tower to reach Heaven. God did not wish this, so he destroyed the tower and confused their language so that they could not understand each other.

concupiscence:lust, sexual desire

cuckold:man whose wife has been sexually unfaithful to him

cubby-hole:small office

skylark:play about

British Summer Time:one hour in advance of ordinary time to facilitate the use of daylight

Greenwich Mean Time:standard time in Great Britain

Dalesmen:inhabitants of the Yorkshire dales

woad:blue-black or green dye used by the Ancient Britons

spark test:used to see if the sparking plug (in the internal combustion engine of a car) is firing properly. (Millicent uses the phrase when she is ‘testing’ John’s sexual response)