Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

English

Etymology

An invented pseudonym of the supposed writer of a letter to a local newspaper in the archetypal Middle England town of Tunbridge Wells. Possibly first coined 1944 in the BBC radio series Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.

Noun

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells (plural Disgusteds of Tunbridge Wells)

1. (Britain, idiomatic) A stereotypical vocal conservative curmudgeon.
   • 1979, Adrian Hope, "Kept Incommunicado", New Scientist, page 1048

     The Post Office bitterly resents the criticism that is constantly voiced in the British press, both by "Disgusteds of Tunbridge Wells" and journalists.

   • 2000, British Journal of Photography

     It was refreshing that what raised the hackles of Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells had nothing to do with a colourful range of jumpers, nor a flighty Italian art director/photographer.

   • 2003, Colin Leys, Market-driven Politics: Neoliberal Democracy and the Public Interest, Verso →ISBN, page 216

     Of course 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' was never a Labour voter.

   • 2007, Jeremy Paxman, The Political Animal, Penguin UK →ISBN

     The Sussex Weald is all small towns and villages, 99 per cent white, gravel-drived, car-owning, the sort of place Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells would move to if he found Tunbridge Wells a bit too bustling.

   • 2011, Justin Webb, Notes on Them and Us: From the Mayflower to Obama – the British, the Americans and the special essential relationship., Short Books →ISBN

     The inanity of the British attack is obvious from some of the words the early Disgusteds of Tunbridge Wells complained about.