Book description
Did you know that an assassin is a hashish-eater and a
yokel a country woodpecker?
That Dr Mesmer mesmerised patients back to health or that
Samuel Pepys enjoyed a good game of handicap?
While we're at it, what have spondulics to do with spines or
lawyers with avocados?
In It's a Wonderful Word, bestselling author Albert Jack
collects over 500 of the strangest, funniest-sounding and most
delightful words in the English language, and traces them back to
their often puzzling origins. While brushing up on your
gibberish or gobbledygook, discover why bastards
should resent travelling salesmen, why sheets should remain on
tenterhooks and why you should never set down a tumbler
before finishing your drink.
From blotto to bamboozle and from claptrap to
quango, Albert Jack's addictive anecdotes bring the world's
most colourful language to life and are guaranteed to surprise and entertain.
ALBERT JACK is a writer and historian. His first book, Red
Herrings and White Elephants, explored the origins of well-known
phrases; an international bestseller, it was serialised by the
Sunday Times for over a year. He followed up this success
with a series of bestsellers including Shaggy Dogs and Black
Sheep and Pop Goes the Weasel, a book exploring the dark
histories and little-known meanings behind nursery rhymes.
Fascinated by discovering the truth behind the world's great
stories, Albert has become an expert in explaining the unexplained. He
is now a veteran of hundreds of live television shows and thousands of
radio appearances worldwide. He divides his time between Guildford and
Cape Town.
