83
Citroen: large car, popular at the time
84
wind-up (to have the): very frightened
85
just the job: exactly right
86
“Teddy-Bears’ Picnic”: popular song of the period reflecting childish innocence
87
Benzedrine: drug that stimulates the heart and causes sleeplessness
88
posted: signposted
89
gatehouse: small building in which the signalman would operate the signals and the gates at the level crossing
90
Napoleon: Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), great French soldier and Emperor, finally defeated at Waterloo (1815)
91
Superman: the famous cartoon character of superhuman strength and moral commitment to the law
92
high term: an exaggeration
93
bunk-up: help somebody up by bending down so that he/she can climb on your back
94
blackthorn: the sloe, a thorny shrub that has white flowers and small black fruit
95
Bizerta: port in Libya, scene of much fighting between the British and the Italian/German forces in World War II.
96
tail-end Charlie: in the rear (of a convoy of cars)
97
phlegm: calm nature
98
Skipper: leader
99
Eton: famous public school founded by Henry VI in 1440 to prepare scholars for Cambridge
100
Borstaclass="underline" one of a number of institutions where young criminals are detained and given reformatory training
101
Bow bells: the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, a church in Cheapside, London.
102
blowing the gaff: revealing a secret (slang)
103
Vesuvius: active volcano near Naples in Italy
104
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.
105
Nero: Roman Emperor (AD 37–68), said to have fiddled while Rome burned. A brutal tyrant.
106
custodians: policemen, guardians
107
toll-gate: bar or gate across a road where taxes had to be paid by road-users
108
customs house: where customs duties are collected at a seaport
109
Hastings, Battle of: where William the Conqueror defeated the Saxons under King Harold (1066)
110
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.
111
concupiscence: lust, sexual desire
112
cuckold: man whose wife has been sexually unfaithful to him
113
cubby-hole: small office
114
skylark: play about
115
British Summer Time: one hour in advance of ordinary time to facilitate the use of daylight
116
Greenwich Mean Time: standard time in Great Britain
117
Dalesmen: inhabitants of the Yorkshire dales
118
woad: blue-black or green dye used by the Ancient Britons
119
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)
120
kick: pleasure (slang)
121
erotic services: sexual favours
122
gainsay: deny
123
temerity: nerve
124
press-gang: group of men employed, particularly in the wars against Napoleon, to take men for the armed services
125
entourage: those attending the leader
126
pipe-dream: vision (based on the extravagant fantasy induced by smoking opium)
127
helclass="underline" till hell freezes over, i.e. an impossibility
128
Jerries: Germans (army slang)
129
Fusiliers: infantry regiment
130
going to the walclass="underline" being killed