turn up for the book

• turn-up for the book, turn up for the books, turn-up for the books

Originally from racecourse betting, from turn up (“stroke of luck”) and book (“record of betting; bookmaker”).

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turn up for the book (plural (rare) turn ups for the book)

1. (idiomatic) A very unexpected, usually pleasant, surprise.
   • 1987, Edward Dryhurst, Gilt Off the Gingerbread, →OCLC:

     Her mother kept well away from us, which was a turn up for the book, and for the time being at any rate, I was a model husband.

   • 2000 March 12, Stuart Barnes, “Swindon stunner for Curbishley”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     What a turn up for the book. After 12 successive league wins […] Charlton were nobbled by the First Division's no-hopers, who profited from a goalkeeping bloomer then held on to their lead for dear life.

   • 2011, Michael Frayn, My Father's Fortune: A Life, →ISBN, page 104:

     All these turn ups for the book had lasting consequences.

   • 2013, David Stuart Davies, A Taste for Blood, →ISBN:

     'Well, boyo, this is a turn up for the book,' observed my friend David Llewellyn without a trace of irony. 'I never expected to wind up in a hospital bed next to you.'π

• The plural form turn ups for the book is rarely used outside journalism.
• The phrase turn up for the books is not a plural form, but an alternative singular form.

• for the book

• Gary Martin (1997–) “A turn up for the books”, in The Phrase Finder.
• Eric Partridge (2005) “turn-up for the books”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 2021.