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. (UK, idiomatic) A stereotypical vocal conservative curmudgeon.
   • 1979, Adrian Hope, “Kept Incommunicado”, in 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.