Thanks for the input guys.
My intention was to automatically re-translate books written by British (or similar - Ozzy Kiwi etc.) authors and converted into US editions back into GB English. This is entirely for the enjoyment of myself and friends.
Hopefully there won't be many characters knocking people up etc. in these editions
. I agree it would be absolutely futile to try and 'translate' a book by an American author using his/her vernacular into GB English.
Using Kovid's function
and a word list from, and many thanks to,
http://www.tysto.com/uk-us-spelling-list.html
and my own saved searches list I can 'translate' about 2k (and growing) US English words and phrases into GB English at the moment.
I still have to do a quick spell check but this takes next to no time at all now.
This gives a more British feel when reading a British book published in the US. For instance; as soon as you hear a British character - walking on the 'sidewalk', talking to his 'Mom' on his 'cell phone' and throwing some 'trash' into a 'dumpster' - the whole book feels wrong.
But... of course you are correct in your criticism.
Context is everything. The only way to do it properly is to proof read the book and edit it for spelling, context, and idiom. But I'm not going to do this and then read the book again for pleasure am I?
So far I have re-translated and re-read, for experimental purposes, one book, (Paul Cleave - The Cleaner), that I had read in US English and did not like at all because Kiwis use GB English and, Goddamit, it just felt wrong reading it in US English.
I had not read the book for some time and quite enjoyed re-reading the 're- translated' version.
So for me it works. Maybe it will for others and I'll post the functions, word lists etc. in the near future. The method is very quick and easy to use for readers familiar with the Calibre book editor.
Here's to ya/Cheers - moldy