“Because of social strictures against even the mildest swearing, America developed a particularly rich crop of euphemistic expletives - darn, durn, goldurn, goshdad, goshdang, goshawful, blast, consarn, confound, by Jove, by jingo, great guns, by the great horn spoon (a nonce term first cited in the Biglow Papers), jo-fired, jumping Jehoshaphat, and others almost without number - but even this cautious epithets could land people in trouble as late as the 1940s.”

American journalist and author, naturalized British citizen in 2014

Bill Bryson is an American journalist and author, born in the United States and naturalized as a British citizen in 2014. He is known for nonfiction writing on travel, the English language, and science. He moved to Britain in his twenties and spent most of his adult life there, though he also returned to the United States for periods, including 1995 to 2003. From 2005 to 2011, he served as chancellor of Durham University. His books often explore everyday life, language, and the natural world with clarity and wit.