John Mortimer Legal career When did Mortimer start his legal career? Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. What firm did he work for? I don't know. What type of law did he practice? His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, Did that change later in his career? on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. What is "taking silk"? I don't know. Did he work on any major cases? Whitehouse v. Lemon When was this case? 1976, Did he win the case? Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal. What was the case about? he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" What other cases did he work on? His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks
Why was using "bollocks" a big deal?
Why was using "bollocks" a big deal in legal terms according to John Mortimer?
Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career consisted of testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake work in criminal law. His highest profile, though, came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."  He has sometimes been incorrectly cited as a member in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team, though this is inaccurate. Mortimer did however successfully represent publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in their 1968 appeal against their conviction for publishing Hubert Selby, Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.  Mortimer was also defence counsel at the Oz conspiracy trial later in 1971. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) for the publication of James Kirkup's "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name" against charges of blasphemous libel; Lemon was convicted with a suspended prison sentence, later overturned on appeal. His defence of Virgin Records in the 1977 obscenity hearing for their use of the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, and the manager of the Nottingham branch of the Virgin record shop chain for the record's display in a window and its sale, led to the defendants' being found not guilty. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984. CANNOTANSWER
Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols,
Sir John Clifford Mortimer  (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was an English barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole.

Early life
Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London, the only child of Kathleen May (née Smith) and (Herbert) Clifford Mortimer (1884–1961), a divorce and probate barrister who became blind in 1936 when he hit his head on the door frame of a London taxi but still pursued his career. Clifford's loss of sight was not acknowledged openly by the family.

John Mortimer was educated at the Dragon School, Oxford, and Harrow School, where he joined the Communist Party, forming a one-member cell. He first intended to be an actor (his lead role in the Dragon's 1937 production of Richard II gained glowing reviews in The Draconian) and then a writer, but his father persuaded him against it, advising: "My dear boy, have some consideration for your unfortunate wife... [the law] gets you out of the house."

At 17, Mortimer went up to Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read law, though he was actually based at Christ Church because the Brasenose buildings had been requisitioned for the war effort. In July 1942, at the end of his second year, he was sent down from Oxford by John Lowe, Dean of Christ Church, after romantic letters to a Bradfield College sixth-former, Quentin Edwards, later a QC, were discovered by the young man's housemaster. But Mortimer was still allowed to take his Bachelor of Arts degree in law in October 1943. His close friend Michael Hamburger believed he had been very harshly treated.

Early writing career
With weak eyes and doubtful lungs, Mortimer was classified as medically unfit for military service in World War II. He worked for the Crown Film Unit under Laurie Lee, writing scripts for propaganda documentaries.

I lived in London and went on journeys in blacked-out trains to factories and coal-mines and military and air force installations. For the first and, in fact, the only time in my life I was, thanks to Laurie Lee, earning my living entirely as a writer. If I have knocked the documentary ideal, I would not wish to sound ungrateful to the Crown Film Unit. I was given great and welcome opportunities to write dialogue, construct scenes and try and turn ideas into some kind of visual drama.

He based his first novel, Charade, on his experiences with the Crown Film Unit.

Mortimer made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955, adapting his own novel Like Men Betrayed for the BBC Light Programme. His debut as an original playwright came with The Dock Brief starring Michael Hordern as a hapless barrister, first broadcast in 1957 on BBC Radio's Third Programme, and later televised with the same cast. It later appeared in a double bill with What Shall We Tell Caroline? at the Lyric Hammersmith in April 1958, before transferring to the Garrick Theatre. The Dock Brief was revived by Christopher Morahan in 2007 for a touring double bill with Legal Fictions. It won the Prix Italia in 1957, and its success on radio, stage, and television led Mortimer to prefer writing for performance rather than writing novels.

Mortimer's play A Voyage Round My Father, first broadcast on radio in 1963, is autobiographical, recounting his experiences as a young barrister and his relations with his blind father. It was televised by BBC Television in 1969 with Mark Dignam in the title role. In a lengthier version, the play became a stage success – first at Greenwich Theatre with Dignam, then in 1971 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket with Alec Guinness). In 1981 it was remade by Thames Television with Laurence Olivier as the father and Alan Bates as young Mortimer. In 1965, he and his wife wrote the screenplay for the Otto Preminger film Bunny Lake is Missing, which also starred Olivier.

Legal career
Mortimer was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1948, at the age of 25. His early career covered testamentary and divorce work, but on taking silk in 1966, he began to undertake criminal law. His highest profile came from cases relating to claims of obscenity, which, according to Mortimer, were "alleged to be testing the frontiers of tolerance."

He has sometimes been cited wrongly as one in the Lady Chatterley's Lover obscenity trial defence team. He did, however, successfully defend publishers John Calder and Marion Boyars in an 1968 appeal against a conviction for publishing Hubert Selby Jr.'s Last Exit to Brooklyn. He assumed a similar role three years later, this time unsuccessfully, for Richard Handyside, the English publisher of The Little Red Schoolbook.

In 1971, Mortimer managed to defend the editors of the satirical paper Oz against a charge of "conspiracy to corrupt and debauch the morals of the young of the Realm", which might have carried a sentence of 12 years' hard labour. In 1976, he defended Gay News editor Denis Lemon (Whitehouse v. Lemon) against charges of blasphemous libel for publishing James Kirkup's The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name; Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence, which was overturned on appeal. He successfully defended Virgin Records in a 1977 obscenity hearing for using the word bollocks in the title of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols and the manager of the Nottingham branch of Virgin record shop chain for displaying and selling the record. Mortimer retired from the bar in 1984.

Later writing career
Mortimer is best remembered for creating a barrister named Horace Rumpole, inspired by his father Clifford, whose speciality is defending those accused in London's Old Bailey. Mortimer created Rumpole for a BBC Play For Today in 1975. Although not Mortimer's first choice of actor – in an interview on the DVD set, he said he wanted Alistair Sim "but he turned out to be dead so he couldn't take it on" – Australian-born Leo McKern played Rumpole with gusto and proved popular. The idea was developed into a series, Rumpole of the Bailey, for Thames Television, in which McKern kept the lead role. Mortimer also wrote a series of Rumpole books. In September–October 2003, BBC Radio 4 broadcast four new 45-minute Rumpole plays by Mortimer with Timothy West in the title role. Mortimer also dramatised many real-life cases of the barrister Edward Marshall-Hall in a radio series with former Doctor Who star Tom Baker as protagonist.

In 1975 and 1976, Mortimer adapted eight of Graham Greene’s short stories for episodes of Shades of Greene presented by Thames Television. Mortimer was credited with writing the script for Granada Television's 1981 serialization of Brideshead Revisited, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh. However, Graham Lord's unofficial biography, John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate, revealed in 2005 that none of Mortimer's submitted scripts had in fact been used and the screenplay was actually written by the series' producer and director. Mortimer adapted John Fowles's The Ebony Tower starring Laurence Olivier for Granada in 1984. In 1986, his adaptation of his own novel Paradise Postponed was televised. He wrote the script, based on the autobiography of Franco Zeffirelli, for the 1999 film Tea with Mussolini, directed by Zeffirelli and starring Joan Plowright, Cher, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin. From 2004, Mortimer worked as a consultant for the politico-legal US "dramedy" television show Boston Legal.

Mortimer developed his career as a dramatist by rising early to write before attending court. His work in total includes over 50 books, plays and scripts.  Besides 13 episodes of Rumpole dramatized for radio in 1980, several others of his works were broadcast on the BBC, including the true crime series John Mortimer Presents: The Trials Of Marshall Hall and Sensational British Trials.

Personal life
Mortimer in 1949 married Penelope Fletcher as her second husband, later better known as Penelope Mortimer. They had a son, Jeremy Mortimer, and a daughter, Sally Silverman. The unstable marriage inspired work by both writers, of which Penelope's novel, The Pumpkin Eater (1962), later made into a film of the same name, is best known. The couple divorced in 1971 and he married Penelope Gollop in 1972. They had two daughters, Emily Mortimer (1971), and Rosie Mortimer (1984). He and his second wife lived in the Buckinghamshire village of Turville Heath. The split with his first wife had been bitter, but they were on friendly terms by the time of her death in 1999.

In September 2004, the Sunday Telegraph journalist Tim Walker revealed that Mortimer had fathered another son,  Ross Bentley, who was conceived during a secret affair Mortimer had with the English actress Wendy Craig more than 40 years earlier. He was born in November 1961. Craig and Mortimer had met when the actress had been cast playing a pregnant woman in Mortimer's first full-length West End play, The Wrong Side of the Park. Ross Bentley was raised by Craig and her husband, Jack Bentley, the show business writer and musician.

In Mortimer's memoirs, Clinging to the Wreckage, he wrote of "enjoying my mid-thirties and all the pleasures which come to a young writer."

Honours
Awarded a CBE in 1986, he was knighted in 1998.

Death
Mortimer suffered a stroke in October 2008 and died on 16 January 2009, aged 85.

Attributes
John Mortimer was a member of English PEN.  He was patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London-based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma and president of the Royal Court Theatre, having been the chairman of its board in 1990–2000.

Bibliography

Charade, Mortimer's first novel, Bodley Head, London (1947); Viking, New York (1986); 
Rumming Park, Bodley Head, London (1948)
Answer Yes Or No, Bodley Head, London (1950)
Like Men Betrayed, Collins, London (1953); Viking, New York (1988); 
The Narrowing Stream, Collins, London (1954); Viking, New York (1989); 
Three Winters, Collins, London (1956)
Heaven and Hell (including The Fear of Heaven and The Prince of Darkness) (1976)
Will Shakespeare (1977)
Rumpole of the Bailey (1978); 
The Trials of Rumpole (1979)
Rumpole's Return (1980)
Regina v Rumpole (1981)
Rumpole for the Defence (1982)
Clinging to the Wreckage: A Part Of Life (autobiography) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1982); ; Houghton Mifflin, New York (1982); 
The First Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1983)
Rumpole and the Golden Thread (1983)
A Choice of Kings, in Alan Durband, ed., Playbill 3 (Nelson Thornes, 1966), 
Edwin and Other Plays (1984)
In Character (1984); 
Paradise Postponed (1985); 
Character Parts (1986); 
Rumpole for the Prosecution (1986)
Rumpole's Last Case (1987)
The Second Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1987)
Rumpole and the Age of Miracles (1988)
Glasnost (BBC Radio Four, 1988)
Summer's Lease (1988); 
Rumpole and the Age for Retirement (1989)  - stand-alone publication of short story first published in The Trials of Rumpole (1979) 
Rumpole a La Carte (1990)
Titmuss Regained (1990)
Great Law And Order Stories (1990)
The Rapstone Chronicles (omnibus; 1991)
Rumpole On Trial (1992)
Dunster (1992); 
Thou Shalt Not Kill: Father Brown, Father Dowling And Other Ecclesiastical Sleuths (1992) (with G K Chesterton and Ralph McInerny)
The Oxford Book of Villains (1992)
The Best of Rumpole: A Personal Choice (1993)
Under the Hammer (1994)
Murderers and Other Friends: Another Part of Life (autobiography), Viking, London (1994); Viking, NY (1995); 
Rumpole and the Angel of Death (1995)
Rumpole and the Younger Generation (1995)  - stand-alone publication of short story first published in Rumpole of the Bailey (1978) 
Felix in the Underworld (1996)
The Third Rumpole Omnibus (omnibus) (1997)
The Sound of Trumpets (1998)
The Mammoth Book of Twentieth-Century Ghost Stories (1998)
The Summer of a Dormouse: A Year of Growing Old Disgracefully (autobiography), Viking Penguin, London (2000); ; Viking Press, New York (2001); 
Rumpole Rests His Case (2002)
Rumpole and the Primrose Path (2002)
The Brancusi Trial (2003)
Where There's a Will (autobiography), Viking, London (2003) ; Viking, New York (2005); 
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders (2004); 
Quite Honestly (2005); 
The Scales of Justice (2005); 
Rumpole and the Reign of Terror (2006); 
The Antisocial Behaviour of Horace Rumpole (2007; in United States as Rumpole Misbehaves)
Rumpole at Christmas (2009)

Select screenwriting credits
The Innocents (additional dialogue, 1961)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
A Flea in Her Ear (1968)
John and Mary (1969)
 Edwin (1984, TV film)
Maschenka (1987) (Vladimir Nabokov novel adaptation directed by John Goldschmidt)
Tea With Mussolini (1999)

References

The Radio Companion by Paul Donovan, HarperCollins (1991) 
Halliwell's Television Companion, Third edition, Grafton (1986) 
Who's Who in the Theatre, 17th edition, ed Ian Herbert, Gale (1981) 
John Mortimer: The Devil's Advocate by Graham Lord, Orion (2005)

External links

John Mortimer plays in Bristol University Theatre Archive

John Mortimer biography
Finding Aid to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at The Bancroft Library
Inventory to the John Clifford Mortimer papers at Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Recordings and Photos of the visit by Sir John to the College Historical Society in October 2007

Obituary: Sir John Mortimer (BBC)
Sir John Clifford Mortimer (1923-2009), barrister, playwright and writer Sitter in 7 portraits (National Portrait Gallery)

1923 births
2009 deaths
Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
British Book Award winners
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English barristers
English dramatists and playwrights
English short story writers
English television writers
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Knights Bachelor
People educated at Gibbs School
People educated at The Dragon School
People educated at Harrow School
People from Hampstead
People from Wycombe District
Prix Italia winners
Booker authors' division
English male dramatists and playwrights
English male short story writers
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century British short story writers
20th-century English male writers
British male television writers
John
20th-century English screenwriters
20th-century English lawyers
Members of the Inner Temple
Queen's Counsel 1901–2000
Bollocks () is a word of Middle English origin, meaning "testicles". The word is often used figuratively in British English and Hiberno-English in a multitude of negative ways; it most commonly appears as a noun meaning "rubbish" or "nonsense", an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, or an adjective to describe something that is of poor quality or useless. It is also used in common phrases like "bollocks to this", which is said when quitting a task or job that is too difficult or negative, and "that's a load of old bollocks", which generally indicates contempt for a certain subject or opinion. Conversely, the word also appears in positive phrases such as "the dog's bollocks" or more simply "the bollocks", which will refer to something which is admired or well-respected.

Etymology
The word has a long history, with the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) giving examples of its usage dating back to the 13th century. One of the early references is Wycliffe's Bible (1382), Leviticus xxii, 24: "Al beeste, that ... kitt and taken awey the ballokes is, ye shulen not offre to the Lord ..." (any beast that is cut and taken away the bollocks, you shall not offer to the Lord, i.e. castrated animals are not suitable as sacrifices).

The OED states (with abbreviations expanded): "Probably a derivative of Teutonic ball-, of which the Old English representative would be inferred as beall-u, -a, or -e". The Teutonic ball- in turn probably derives from the Proto-Indo-European base *bhel-, to inflate or swell. This base also forms the root of many other words, including "phallus".

Meaning "nonsense"
From the 17th to the 19th century, bollocks or ballocks was allegedly used as a slang term for a clergyman, although this meaning is not mentioned by the OED's 1989 edition. For example, in 1684, the Commanding Officer of the Straits Fleet regularly referred to his chaplain as "Ballocks". It has been suggested that bollocks came to have its modern meaning of "nonsense" because some clergymen were notorious for talking nonsense during their sermons. According to Merriam Webster the term has been used before the 12th century.

Severity
Originally, the word "bollocks" was the everyday vernacular word for testicles—as noted above, it was used in this sense in the first English-language Bible, in the 14th century. By the mid-17th century, at least, it had begun to acquire coarse figurative meanings (see section on "bollocking"), for example in a translation of works by Rabelais.

It did not appear in Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary of the English language. It was also omitted from the 1933 Oxford English Dictionary and its 1941 reprint, finally appearing in the 1972 supplement. The first modern English dictionary to include an entry for "bollocks" was G. N. Garmonsway's Penguin English Dictionary of 1965.

The relative severity of the various profanities, as perceived by the British public, was studied on behalf of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Advertising Standards Authority. The results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives?". This placed "bollocks" in eighth position in terms of its perceived severity, between "prick" (seventh place) and "arsehole" (ninth place). By comparison, the word "balls" (which has some similar meanings) was down in 22nd place. Of the people surveyed, 25% thought that "bollocks" should not be broadcast at all, and only 11% thought that it could acceptably be broadcast at times before the national 9 pm "watershed" on television (radio does not have a watershed). 25% of the people regarded "bollocks" as "very severe", 32% "quite severe", 34% "mild" and 8% considered it "not swearing".

A survey of the language of London teenagers (published in 2002) examined, amongst other things, the incidence of various swearwords in their speech. It noted that the top ten swearwords make up 81% of the total swearwords. "Bollocks" was the seventh most frequent swearword, after "fucking", "shit", "fuck", "bloody", "hell" and "fuck off". Below "bollocks" were "bastard", "bitch" and "damn", in eighth, ninth and tenth places. This research regarded these words as swearwords in the context of their usage but noted that some might be inoffensive in other contexts.

Some campaigners, particularly the Liberal Democrats, hoping to stop the UK's departure from the European Union have adopted the slogan, "Bollocks to Brexit".  When queried about the propriety of the use of this term in Parliament in January 2019, the Speaker of the House, John Bercow ruled that the use of the word in Parliamentary speech was "not disorderly".

Negative uses

"Talking bollocks" and "bollockspeak"
"Talking bollocks" generally means talking nonsense or bullshit, for example: "Don't listen to him, he's talking bollocks", or "... talking absolute bollocks". Another example is "I told Maurice that he was talking bollocks, that he was full of shit and that his opinions were a pile of piss. (Rhetoric was always my indulgence.)" "Talking bollocks" in a corporate context is referred to as bollockspeak. Bollockspeak tends to be buzzword-laden and largely content-free, like gobbledygook: "Rupert, we'll have to leverage our synergies to facilitate a paradigm shift by Q4" is an example of management bollockspeak. There is a whole parodic book entitled The Little Book of Management Bollocks. When a great deal of bollocks is being spoken, it may be said that the 'bollocks quotient' is high.

A "bollocks" (singular noun)
Comparable to cock-up, screw-up, balls-up, etc. Used with the indefinite article, it means a disaster, a mess or a failure. It is often used pejoratively, as in to have "made a bollocks out of it", and it is generally used throughout Britain and Ireland.

Bollocks up (transitive verb)
To bollocks something up means "to mess something up". It refers to a botched job: "Well, you bollocksed it up that time, Your Majesty!" or "Bollocksed up at work again, I fear. Millions down the drain".

To "drop a bollock"
To "drop a bollock" describes the malfunction of an operation, or messing something up, as in many sports, and in more polite business parlance, dropping the ball brings play to an unscheduled halt.

Bollocking

Noun
A "bollocking" usually denotes a robust verbal chastisement for something which one has done (or not done, as the case may be), for instance: "I didn't do my homework and got a right bollocking off Mr Smith", or "A nurse was assisting at an appendix operation when she shouldn't have been ... and the surgeon got a bollocking". Actively, one gives or delivers a bollocking to someone; in the building trade one can 'throw a right bollocking into' someone.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest meaning as "to slander or defame" and suggests that it entered the English language from the 1653 translation of one of Rabelais' works, which includes the Middle French expression "en couilletant", translated as "ballocking". The earliest printed use in the sense of a severe reprimand is, according to the OED, from 1946.

Adjective
Bollocking can also be used as a reinforcing adjective: "He hasn't a bollocking clue!" or "Where's me bollocking car?"

"A kick in the bollocks"
"A kick in the bollocks" is used to describe a significant set-back or disappointment, e.g. "I was diagnosed with having skin cancer. Ye Gods! What a kick in the bollocks".

"Freeze (or work) one's bollocks off"
To freeze one's bollocks off means to be very cold. To "work one's bollocks off" is to work very hard. This phrase is sometimes used by or about women: Boy George referred to his mother "working her bollocks off" at home.

"Bollock naked"
"Bollock naked" is used in the singular form to emphasise being completely nude: "he was completely pissed and stark bollock naked".

Bollocks (singular noun)
In Ireland, "bollocks", "ballocks" or "bollox" can be used as a singular noun to mean a despicable or notorious person, for instance: "Who's the old ballocks you were talking to?", or conversely as a very informal term of endearment: "Ah Ted, ye big bollocks, let's go and have a pint!".

"Bollocksed"
Multiple meanings, also spelled "bolloxed" or "bollixed":
 Exhausted: "I couldn't sleep at all last night, I'm completely bollocksed!"
 Broken: "My foot pump is bollocksed."
 An extreme state of inebriation or drug-induced stupor: "Last night I got completely bollocksed".
 Hungover (or equivalent): "I drank two bottles of gin last night, I'm completely bollocksed."
 Made a mistake: "I tried to draw that landscape, but I bollocksed it up."

The phrase "bollocksed up" means to be in a botched, bungled, confused or disarrayed state; e.g. "He managed to bollix up the whole project." In the printing and newspaper industries, dropping a California Job type case of moveable type  spilling the contents  was a classic example of "bollocksing up the works". The box was called "pied". "Bollocksed" in that sense meant "beyond all repair".

Web design
"Dog's bollocks syndrome" is a term used by web designers to describe over-designed websites that have more flash than might be needed or justified.

Positive uses

"Dog's bollocks"
A usage with a positive (albeit still vulgar) sense is "the dog's bollocks"'or simplified "The Bollocks"'. An example of this usage is: "Before Tony Blair's speech, a chap near me growled: 'He thinks he's the dog's bollocks.' Well, he's entitled to. It was a commanding speech: a real dog's bollocks of an oration."

This phrase comes from the common observation that a dog's bollocks are so good he licks them himself.  This is the generally held belief of the origination and use of this phrase first heard in Weston-super-Mare England in 1971
Although this is disputed in Gloucestershire where it is believed someone in 'The Shed' referred to Barry John as 'The dog's bollocks in 1970' 

Although this is a recent term (the Online Etymology Dictionary dates it to 1989), its origins are obscure. Etymologist Eric Partridge and the Oxford English Dictionary believe the term comes from the now obsolete typographical sequence of a colon and a dash :-. This typography, using a dash following a colon -:, was used to introduce a list. Thus, it is a very early example of an emoticon.

The Oxford English Dictionary says the following mark (":— ") is entitled "the dog’s bollocks", defined as: "typogr. a colon followed by a dash, regarded as forming a shape resembling the male sexual organs." The usage is cited to the year 1949.

This phrase has found its way into popular culture in a number of ways. There is a beer brewed in England by the Wychwood Brewery called the "Dog's Bollocks", as well as a lager cocktail.

The Dutch city Groningen has a pub style café named "The dog's bollocks".

"Chuffed to one's bollocks"
The phrase "chuffed to one's bollocks" describes someone who is very pleased with themselves. Nobel laureate Harold Pinter used this in The Homecoming The phrase provided a serious challenge to translators of his work. Pinter used a similar phrase in an open letter, published in The Guardian, and addressed to Prime Minister Tony Blair, attacking his co-operation with American foreign policy. The letter ends by saying "Oh, by the way, meant to mention, forgot to tell you, we were all chuffed to the bollocks when Labour won the election."

Other uses
 "Bollock-head" is a vulgar British term for a shaven head. It can also refer to someone who is stupid, as can "bollock-brain". The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811) cites the expression "His brains are in his ballocks", to designate a fool.

Rhyming slang
The rhyming slang for bollocks is "Jackson Pollocks". It can be shortened to Jacksons, as in "Modern art? Pile o' Jacksons if you ask me!". Sandra Bullocks is occasionally used to approximate rhyming slang; it does not quite rhyme, but preserves meter and rhythm. The Beautiful South bowdlerised their original line "sweaty bollocks" as "Sandra Bullocks", as one of several changes to make their song "Don't Marry Her" acceptable for mainstream radio play.

"Horlicks"
The term "Horlicks" was brought to prominence in July 2003, when then-British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw used it to describe irregularities in the preparation and provenance of the "dodgy dossier" regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Straw used the expression "a complete Horlicks", instead of the more impolite "make a complete bollocks of something". This euphemism stems from an advertising campaign for the Horlicks malt drink, where people were seen to be shouting "Horlicks!" in a loud voice, to give vent to stress or frustration. Eric Morecambe was also known to cough "Horlicks!" behind his hand on The Morecambe and Wise Show.

Rowlocks/rowlockingRollocking is sometimes used as a euphemism for "bollocking". A rollocking bollocking may be delivered by an electorate.

Bollards
The 2007 Concise new Partridge dictionary of slang and unconventional English quotes "bollards" as meaning "testicles" and that it is a play on the word bollocks.

Literature

The play Sodom, or the Quintessence of Debauchery, published in 1684 and ascribed to John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, includes a character named Bolloxinion, King of Sodom (along with other characters with names such as General Buggeranthos and the maid of honour, Fuckadilla). The word bollox appears several times in the text, such as:

In 1690, the publisher Benjamin Crayle was fined 20 pounds and sent to prison for his part in publishing the play.

In one of the tales in Burton's 1885 translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Kafur, the eunuch, says:

Obscenity court ruling
Perhaps the best-known use of the term is in the title of the 1977 punk rock album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. Testimony in a resulting prosecution over the term demonstrated that in Old English, the word referred to a priest, and could also be used to mean "nonsense". Defence barrister John Mortimer QC and Virgin Records won the case: the court ruled that the word was not obscene. It just means "put aside all of that other rubbish and pay attention to this". In a summary for the defence, Mortimer asked,

Tony Wright, a Leicestershire trader, was given an £80 fixed penalty fine by police for selling T-shirts bearing the slogan "Bollocks to Blair". This took place on 29 June 2006 at the Royal Norfolk Show; the police issued the penalty notice, quoting Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 which refers to language "deemed to cause harassment, alarm or distress".

See alsoArt Bollocks''
Bullock (disambiguation)
A load of old cobblers
Wikisaurus:testicles

References

Notes

Citations

British English idioms
Interjections
English profanity
Testicle
English words "Bollocks to Brexit" is a meme and grassroots campaign slogan used by people opposing Brexit, following the result of a 2016 referendum. 

The slogan received media coverage and legal attention, as well as being used by the Liberal Democrats.

Merchandise
The phrase was printed on yellow fluorescent stickers (reading "Bollocks to Brexit – It's not a done deal"), which were prominently circulated and displayed on anti-Brexit marches, including the People's Vote march in London on 23 March 2019. The stickers were also handed out at major political party conferences in the UK. The New European, a newspaper supporting Britain remaining in the EU, offered a free "Bollocks to Brexit" mug with a subscription.

A "Bollocks to Brexit" bus, parodying the Vote Leave campaign bus that appeared during the 2016 referendum, toured the UK and Ireland in 2018. The bus made stops in Maidenhead, Uxbridge and Islington, constituencies of Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson, as well as leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn. It was inadvertently shown on television after it appeared in the background of an ITV News broadcast.

Subsequently, three minis were decorated with the slogan "Bollocks to Brexit", and prior to the 2019 United Kingdom general election were driven around the UK with the aim of promoting tactical voting.  

In the run-up to the 2019 EU elections, the Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable adopted the phrase as the title of their party manifesto. The party's newly elected MEPs wore the slogan on the back of T-shirts at the opening of the European Parliament.

Controversy
The phrase, and merchandise featuring it, attracted legal attention. In March 2018, the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow was criticised by the Conservative MP and Leave Means Leave advocate Andrew Bridgen for appearing to display a "Bollocks to Brexit" sign in his car. Bercow said that the car belonged to his wife Sally and he could not be held directly responsible for her thoughts and opinions. In October 2018, Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers and former Conservative Party donor, was ordered by the local council to take down a large "Bollocks to Brexit" sign on top of a company building in Waterloo, London. Commuters complained that the sign was distracting and irrelevant to the business, but Mullins defended his right to free speech and  the sign remained in place.

In March 2019, a man was detained at Gatwick Airport after he refused to remove a "Bollocks to Brexit" badge upon attempting to board a flight. The same month, a protester on the People's Vote march attached a "Bollocks to Brexit" sticker to the front nameplate of the Department for International Trade office in Whitehall in protest at the department secretary, Liam Fox.

Having commenced on the 'mini tour' to promote tactical voting in the 2019 UK General Election, the driver of one of three minis was stopped by an Essex Police officer in November 2019. The officer insisted that the slogan must be removed from the vehicle.

References

External links

 
 EU Flag Mafia - marketer of "Bollocks to Brexit" stickers

Brexit
Obscenity controversies
Political controversies
Pro-Europeanism in the United Kingdom
2010s neologisms