Media commentators have noted a rising public tolerance to the use of rude or offensive words in modern English. John Lydon's obscene outburst on 'I'm a Celebrity...' only provoked a handful of complaints - a muted reaction compared to the furore following his use of the f-word on television twenty-eight years earlier.

This timely and authoritative exploration of rudeness in modern English draws together experts from the academic world and the media - journalists, linguists, lexicographers and literary critics - and argues that rudeness is an important cultural phenomenon. Tightly...