Download or read book Red Herrings and White Elephants written by Albert Jack and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Red Herrings And White Elephants written by Albert Jack and published by Metro Publishing. This book was released on 2007-04-10 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever wondered what phrases such as 'square meal', 'load of old codswallop', 'egg on your face' or 'in the limelight' mean? Where do they come from? Have you ever taken a moment to wonder what we say actually means? The origins of hundreds of common phrases are explained in this irreverent journey through the most fascinating and richest regions of the English language. In a book that takes you all over the world, from nautical origins to food and drink terms, once you have learnt one phrase, you will be eager to learn them all! From the drop of a hat to the bitter end - you'll be surprised and intrigued and you'll never speak English in the same way again.
Download or read book Pop Goes the Weasel written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-09-29 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the international bestselling author of Red Herrings and White Elephants—a curious guide to the hidden histories of classic nursery rhymes. Who was Mary Quite Contrary, or Georgie Porgie? How could Hey Diddle Diddle offer an essential astronomy lesson? Do Jack and Jill actually represent the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette? And if Ring Around the Rosie isn’t about the plague, then what is it really about? This book is a quirky, curious, and sometimes sordid look at the truth behind popular nursery rhymes that uncovers the strange tales that inspired them—from Viking raids to political insurrection to smuggling slaves to freedom. Read Albert Jack's posts on the Penguin Blog.
Download or read book The Old Dog and Duck written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book for everyone who has ever wondered why pubs should be called The Cross Keys, The Dew Drop Inn or The Hope and Anchor. You'll be glad to know that there are very good - strange and memorable - reasons behind them all. After much research about (and in) pubs, Albert Jack brings together the stories behind pub names to reveal how they offer fascinating and subversive insights on our history, customs, attitudes and jokes in just the same way that nursery rhymes do. The Royal Oak, for instance, commemorates the tree that hid Charles II from Cromwell's forces after his defeat at Worcester; The Bag of Nails is a corruption of the Bacchanals, the crazed followers of Bacchus, the god of wine and drunkenness; The Cat and the Fiddle a mangling of Catherine La Fidele and a guarded gesture of support for Henry VIII's first, Catholic, wife Catherine of Aragon; plus many, many more. Here too are even more facts about everything from ghosts to drinking songs to the rules of cribbage and shove hapenny, showing that, ultimately, the story of pub history is really the story of our own popular history
Download or read book The Book of General Ignorance written by John Mitchinson and published by Crown Archetype. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British bestseller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more,The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school. Think Magellan was the first man to circumnavigate the globe, baseball was invented in America, Henry VIII had six wives, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain? Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong again. You’ll be surprised at how much you don’t know! Check out The Book of General Ignorance for more fun entries and complete answers to the following: How long can a chicken live without its head? About two years. What do chameleons do? They don’t change color to match the background. Never have; never will. Complete myth. Utter fabrication. Total Lie. They change color as a result of different emotional states. How many legs does a centipede have? Not a hundred. How many toes has a two-toed sloth? It’s either six or eight. Who was the first American president? Peyton Randolph. What were George Washington’s false teeth made from? Mostly hippopotamus. What was James Bond’s favorite drink? Not the vodka martini.
Download or read book My Twentieth Century Evening and Other Small Breakthroughs written by Kazuo Ishiguro and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Nobel Lecture in Literature, delivered by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans) at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 7, 2017, in an elegant, clothbound edition. In their announcement of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy recognized the emotional force of Kazuo Ishiguro’s fiction and his mastery at uncovering our illusory sense of connection with the world. In the eloquent and candid lecture he delivered upon accepting the award, Ishiguro reflects on the way he was shaped by his upbringing, and on the turning points in his career—“small scruffy moments . . . quiet, private sparks of revelation”—that made him the writer he is today. With the same generous humanity that has graced his novels, Ishiguro here looks beyond himself, to the world that new generations of writers are taking on, and what it will mean—what it will demand of us—to make certain that literature remains not just alive, but essential. An enduring work on writing and becoming a writer, by one of the most accomplished novelists of our generation.
Download or read book What Caesar Did For My Salad written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2010-09-02 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that the Cornish pasty was invented to protect tin miners from arsenic poisoning, or that the word 'salary' comes from Roman soldiers being paid their wages in salt? Why do we eat goose (or turkey) at Christmas? Is the Scotch egg actually from Scotland and what did some retired crusaders have to do with French toast? Who was the original Earl Grey and what sauce was inspired by Parliament? What dish was invented by Greek bandits on the run? Why were hot cross buns seen as magical and what's so rebellious about a haggis or medicinal about a gin and tonic? Did you know what the romantic history is behind the Bakewell Pudding? Albert Jack tells the strange tales behind our favourite dishes and drinks and where they come from (not to mention their unusual creators). What Caesar Did For My Salad is bursting with fascinating insights, characters and enough stories to entertain a hundred dinner parties.
Download or read book Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2009-11-10 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Black Sheep and Lame Ducks written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fun and fascinating follow-up to the international bestseller Red Herrings and White Elephants Why do people put their "skeletons in a closet," "have a hunch," "get the cold shoulder," "get dressed up to the nines," or "call a spade a spade?" These phrases are used every day, yet most people have little or no idea where most of them come from. In Black Sheep and Lame Ducks, Albert Jack takes readers on a journey through the curious- and often bizarre-origins of hundreds of their favorite idioms and expressions. For example, "wearing your heart on your sleeve" comes from the Middle Ages, when a lady would "give her heart" in the form of a handkerchief pinned to the sleeve of a knight who was about to go into battle. And calling someone the "black sheep in the family" refers to a thousands- year-old belief that a black lamb in a flock was unpopular because its fleece was undyeable and therefore less valuable. With Black Sheep and Lame Ducks, any language-lover can feel like a "Smart Aleck"-and also know exactly who that was.
Download or read book Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance written by Mystery Writers of America, Inc. and published by Mulholland Books. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When a different kind of justice is needed -- swift, effective, and personal -- a new type of avenger must take action. Vengeance features new stories by bestselling crime writers including Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and Karin Slaughter, as well as some of today's brightest rising talents. The heroes in these stories include a cop who's seen too much, a woman who has been pushed too far, or just an ordinary person doing what the law will not. Some call them vigilantes, others claim they are just another brand of criminal. Edited and with an introduction by Lee Child, these stories reveal the shocking consequences when men and women take the law into their own hands.
Download or read book Loch Ness Monsters and Raining Frogs written by Albert Jack and published by Random House Trade. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brief collection of humorous and informative examinations of history's most puzzling mysteries, including stories about the Burmuda Triangle, Paul McCartney, Bigfoot, and Marilyn Monroe.
Download or read book Pigs in Heaven written by Barbara Kingsolver and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Picking up where her modern classic The Bean Trees left off, Barbara Kingsolver’s bestselling Pigs in Heaven continues the tale of Turtle and Taylor Greer, a Native American girl and her adoptive mother who have settled in Tucson, Arizona, as they both try to overcome their difficult pasts. Taking place three years after The Bean Trees, Taylor is now dating a musician named Jax and has officially adopted Turtle. But when a lawyer for the Cherokee Nation begins to investigate the adoption—their new life together begins to crumble. Depicting the clash between fierce family love and tribal law, poverty and means, abandonment and belonging, Pigs in Heaven is a morally wrenching, gently humorous work of fiction that speaks equally to the head and the heart. This edition includes a P.S. section with additional insights from Barbara Kingsolver, background material, suggestions for further reading, and more.
Download or read book In the Swamp by the Light of the Moon written by Frann Preston-Gannon and published by Kings Road Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A little frog is singing to himself in the swamp one night. His song doesn't seem complete, so he invites other animals to join in. Nothing sounds right until the littlest voice joins the song - that of a tiny firefly. A wonderfully illustrated picture book with the important message that small voices need to be heard too.
Download or read book Melmoth written by Charles Robert Maturin and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 1885 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Phantom Hitchhikers and Decoy Ducks written by Albert Jack and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2008-08-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. Was Sir Winston Churchill really a Druid? Did Charlie Chaplin lose a lookalike competition? Did The Who's drummer Keith Moon drive his Rolls Royce into a swimming pool? The man with the answers is Albert Jack...' - Daily Express From Walt Disney's frozen head to the kidnap of JFK's brain, Albert Jack gathers together all the strangest, sickest, funniest and most unforgettable urban legends and recounts them with his usual deadpan humour. But this is more than just a collection of urban legends, it is also a detective story. Exploring the real events behind conspiracy theories, the exaggerations of history and the assumptions of old wives’ tales, Albert Jack shows us that the truth can definitely be stranger than fiction...
Download or read book The Infidelity Diaries written by Anonymous and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An extraordinary novel of family relationships, entwining love affairs and the betrayal and revenge that bind them.' Zara is a biographer, living in Sydney. She and Sergei have been married for over twenty years when an encounter with the predatory Caitt changes their life forever. Lili is a property agent in London. She and Will, her husband of ten years, are developing their dream home in Turkey when she discovers he is having an affair with a Russian pastrycook, Larissa ('Slutski', as she calls her). Eve lives in Shanghai with her husband of eight years, Henry, when she realises he has been having a dalliance with Chrystal, his ex-PA. Zara waits and hopes, but she is fatalistic. Lili's plans are complicated by her great affection for her stepson, a relationship that may not survive her divorce from Will. Eve seems prepared to dramatically cut herself loose. When a family crisis reunites them in Sydney the sisters converge, swap stories and discuss vengeance.
Download or read book Closed for Winter written by Georgia Blain and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2012 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Something happened that day on the jetty ... A haunting novel of family secrets.
