Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep

Albert Jack's Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep is a compulsively readable, highly enlightening look at the phrases we use all the time but rarely consider. 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. 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 has become something of a publishing phenomenon, clocking up hundreds of thousands of sales with his series of bestselling adventures tracing the fantastic stories behind everyday phrases (Red Herrings and White Elephants), the world's great mysteries (Loch Ness Monsters and Raining Frogs) nursery rhymes (Pop Goes the Weasel) pub names (The Old Dog and Duck and food history (What Caesar did for My Salad)

Auteur

Albert Jack is a writer and historian. His first book Red Herrings and White Elephants explored the origins of well-known idioms and phrases and became an international best-seller in 2004. It was serialized in the Sunday Times and remained on their best-seller list for sixteen straight months.

He followed this up with a series of other popular titles including Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep, Pop Goes the Weasel, What Caesar did for my Salad & They Laughed at Galileo.

Fascinated by discovering the truth behind the world's great stories, Albert has become an expert at explaining the unexplained, enriching millions of dinner table conversations and ending bar room quarrels the world over.

He is now a veteran of hundreds of live television shows and thousands of radio programs worldwide. Albert lives somewhere between Guildford in England and Bangkok in Thailand.

OTHER BOOKS BY ALBERT JACK

Red Herrings and White Elephants Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep Phantom Hitchhikers Loch Ness Monsters and Other World Mysteries Pop Goes the Weasel The Old Dog and Duck What Caesar Did for my Salad Black Sheep and Lame Ducks It's a Wonderful Word Money for Old Rope Part 1 Money for Old Rope Part 2 The Jam: Sounds From the Street Want to be a Writer? New World Order: The Bilderberg Conspiracy and the Last Man in London Rose Versus Thistle They Laughed at Galileo The Greatest Generation - Diary of a 1st & 6th Airborne Paratrooper 9/11 Conspiracy Debt Freedom Program The Slow Death of Europe Blue Moons and Black Markets