Writing The Railway Girls Second World War series and The Surplus Girls series set in the 1920s, I need to make sure I'm using the correct vocabulary and not putting a word into the story that hasn't yet entered the language at the time the book is set.
This is the dictionary I rely on when I need to find when a word entered the language - 20th Century Words. The Story of the New Words in English Over the Last Hundred Years, by John Ayto, published by Oxford University Press, 1999.
Here are some WW2 words we still use today: austerity, carry-cot, mastermind, pay-as-you-earn (PAYE tax), play group and that wonderful alternative to 'abracadabra' - shazam!
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