188 Words for Rain: A Delightfully Damp Tour of the British Isles, Led by Natural Forces (an Official BBC Weather Book)

By Alan Connor

Mizzle. Dreich. Raining knives and forks. A real mugga-fisty. A spot of plother...

We Brits love talking about the weather. So much so that our islands have hundreds of words and phrases for rain, some self-explanatory and others that really leave us scratching our heads. From a light smirr in Aberdeen to a "it's raining knives and forks " in the Brecon Beacons, each type of rain tells a story about the people and places it falls on.

In this delightfully damp tour of the British Isles, writer and puddle-splasher Alan Connor digs deep into the meaning and quirky histories of over one hundred words for precipitation. He gets caught in a plash in Northumberland, crashes a fox's wedding in Devon and ponders the phenomenon of Brits-who-picnic-in-the-car, in this charming and witty celebration of our very British obsession.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1785948555
• ISBN13: 9781785948558
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: BBC Books
• Length: 320 Pages