Who Is?

[Caran]

Flaming Nora! I say it, someone on tv just said it! Who on earth was/is she?

[cupid04]

It's just an expression of contempt or disgust.

[bunkmoreland]

Was asked here Caran:-) http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question573783.html

[-Talbot-]

A loyal friend of Joan of Arc?

[cupid04]

According to google there's a French restaurant of that name in Islington, London!

[Buenchico]

There's more than one theory.

See here:
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-24596,00.html

Quizmonster goes with the Cockney theory. (Well he did over a decade ago, anyway!):
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History/Question55093.html

[Ann]

//Who Is Flaming Nora!//

.......... My Giddy Aunt! (who is she by the way?) :)

[Mamyalynne]

here's nothing especially giddy about aunts. The word has been applied as an intensifier to all sorts of things - giddy-headed, the giddy ox, etc. Shakespeare used the word 30 or more times in his plays and associated it with both Goths and geese. He seems to have noticed that giddy works best with other 'G' words, although he missed out on the only other 'giddy' phrase to have lasted apart from giddy aunt, that is, the giddy goat.

While it is the 'giddy goat' it is always my 'Giddy aunt!', that is, it is used as an exclamation rather than a description. The first use I can find of 'my giddy aunt' is in The journal of a disappointed man, 1919, by W. N. P. Barbellion (the pseudonym of the English author Bruce Cummings).

Of course the giddiest aunt of them all is the character in Charley's Aunt - Brandon Thomas' farce, which was first performed in 1892. In the play Charley Whyckham's aunt is said to be "from where the nuts come from" (Brazil). The farce revolves around her impersonation by a man, but I can't find any reference in the play to 'her' as giddy.

[Ann]

Thanks, lots of interesting facts there Mamya! I didn't realise the origins were so old.
I have always been "my giddy aunt" to my nieces!

[Hopkirk]

Is my giddy aunt married to Bob?

[Patsy33]

Who the hell was 'Gordon Bennett'??

[Mamyalynne]

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gordon-bennett.html

[cupid04]

We had a Gordon Bennett at school but I don't think he ever became famous!
We also had an Elizabeth Taylor and Petula Clark too but not the famous ones, lol!

[Bazile]

This might interest you all

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a.html

[Patsy33]

Well I never. What a character! Thanks all for info.