"I think they are on a hiding to nothing there. " I haven't seen this term before. What does it mean?

The few Brits I have encountered over the years have always been polite and more than willing to offer help or good conversation. I did not want to make this a public discussion but I have been unable to get a response from sending private messages.

Here is my problem: One of my favorite authors is Stephen Leather. He is from London and a former detective. He is also, in my humble opinion, a great writer. I have asked several folks if they would help me understand some of the uniquely British phrases he uses in his books.

For instance: What is a punter? What exactly is a bacon sandwich? What does the phrase "Robert's your cousins brother" mean? (I'm not sure I got the last one correct.)

I think I have some of them figured out but it would be nice to find one of you folks willing to give me exact explanations. Anyone willing to help?

Thank you all. I apologize for the late response there was a family issue in the real world that I had to deal with.

JR's response was not incomprehensible to me. I have read most of Stephen Leathers books and I've gotten fairly used to the slang.


My problem with the bacon sandwich is that in the USA we have a dozen different types of bacon. I cannot go into a restaurant and find any of them featured in a sandwich that consists of only bacon and bread. We have regular bacon, thick bacon, Canadian bacon, turkey bacon, vegetable bacon, pork bacon, beef bacon, etc. You get the point. One of his characters, Spider Shephard, seems to eat nothing but bacon sandwiches. I thought there must be something more to it than face value.

In the books he refers to a punter as the customer of a prostitute, a gambler or in the scenario I read last night: the scene was between a TV actress and her director. The punter seemed to be anyone not in the TV business.

I appreciate all of your replies. Would it be Ok if I contact one of you through PM when I find the other terms I am not familiar with? The before mentioned family issue has me a bit out of sorts at the moment and I can’t remember the other terms I was puzzled over.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the word "sarnie". I'm surprised that the item referred to wasn't called a "bacon sarnie". Sarnie, meaning sandwich, seems to have become the slang word of the moment, as in "how about a bacon sarnie for lunch?" Any sort of bacon will do, it isn't special.