Book description
The English language is crammed with colourful phrases and sayings
that we use without thinking every day. It's only when we're asked who
smart Alec or Holy Moly were, where feeling in the pink or once in a
blue moon come from, or even what letting the cat out of the bag
really means that we realize that there's far more to English than we
might have thought.
Luckily enough, we now have Albert Jack. And rather than resting on
his laurels after the enormous success of Red Herrings and White
Elephants, he has continued his search around the world, exploring the
origins of hundreds more phrases. The fascinating stories he has
uncovered come from the rich traditions of the navy, army and law to
confidence tricksters and highwaymen, from the practices of ancient
civilizations to Music Hall and pubs. Determined to chase each shaggy
dog story to the bitter end, his discoveries are even stranger and
more memorable this time round.
Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep is a compulsively readable, highly
enlightening look at the phrases we use all the time but rarely
consider. From the skin of your teeth to the graveyard shift - you'll
never speak (or even think) English in the same way again.
Albert Jack is a writer and researcher whose passion for solving the
mysteries of the English language has taken him through dusty libraries
across the world in search of the facts behind the phrases we all take
for granted. Normally, however, he lives in Guildford where he divides
his time between fast living and slow horses, neat vodka and untidy
pubs.
