by Albert Jack
Queers your Pitch
Raining Cats and Dogs
Read Between the Lines
Read the Riot Act
Real Brick
Red Herring
Ride Roughshod
Right as Ninepence
Rigmarole
Ring of Truth
Rings True
Rob Peter to Pay Paul
Rule of Thumb
Ruling the Roost
Run the Roost
Run the Gauntlet
Salad Days
Saved by the Bell
Scallywag
Scapegoat
Scot Free
Screwed
Sent to Coventry
Separate the Wheat from the Chaff
Set Off on the Wrong Foot
Set the Thames Alight
Seventh Heaven
Shaggy Dog Story
Shake a Leg
Shipshape and Bristol Fashion
Short Shrift
Silly Season
Skeleton in the Cupboard
Sleep Tight
Sling Your Hook
Smell a Rat
Soap Opera
Sold Down the River
Son of a Gun
Sour Grapes
Spick and Span
Spill the Beans
Splices the Mainbrace
Spondulics
Square Meal
Stage a Boycott
Stalking Horse
Start from Scratch
Steal your Thunder
Storey
Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
Straw Poll
Stretch a Point
Strike While the Iron is Hot
Sure as Egg is Eggs
Swear on your Testicles
Sweet FA
Swing a Cat
Swing The Lead
Take a Rain Check
Take Umbrage
Taken Aback
Taken with a Pinch of Salt
Talking Turkey
Tarred with the Same Brush
Tenterhooks
The Dutch
The Full Monty
The Lion’s Share
The Real McCoy
The Wrong End of the Stick
There but for the Grace of God Go I
Thick as Thieves
Thread your Way
Three Sheets to the Wind
Throw Down the Gauntlet
Throw your Hat into the Ring
Throwing Mud Around
Tie the Knot
Toe the Line
Too Many Irons in the Fire
Triple Dutch
Turn Up for the Book
Two Faced
Two-Penny’s Worth
Ugly Duckling
Under the Weather
Up Sticks
Up the Spout
Upper Crust
Upper Hand
Use your Loaf
Warts and All
Washout
Wheeler Dealer
Whip Round
Whipping Boy
Whistle for It
White Elephant
Wild Goose Chase
Win Hands Down
Without Batting an Eyelid
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Wooden Spoon
Work cut out for Us
Wreak Havoc
You Scratch my Back and I’ll Scratch Yours
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks in the first place go to Martyn Long whose trivial conversation at the inns around Guildford sparked the idea in the first place. That master of triviality then provided enough inspiration for me to crawl through dirty libraries with dusty librarians (although in some cases that was the other way round) and research the origin of some of our favourite phrases.
Special thanks also go to Ama Page, all the way out there in Botswana, for the wonderful illustrations and to Tony Banks MP for offering to host the book launch in the House (and I don’t mean his house).
Normal thanks go to the following for contributing ideas, answers, leads and suggestions. In no particular order, then: Andy McDaniel and Denise Hance; Bruce Foxton and Steve Grantley of the Stiff Little Fingers fame (make of that what you will) who are responsible for a couple of the little gems you will later read. Then thanks to Claire Miller for the illustration of me; the Bailey Teswaine trio of Peter Patsalides for the Greek translation, Paul Ryan for his spiritual guidance and fatherly advice and Tony Henderson for all his support; Nigel Harland for lunch at the Lords, followed by the Commons and then followed by a visit to their respective libraries. (No dusty librarians in there, then).
It should also be recorded that David Dickie’s suggestions (set enough traps in the woods and you are going to catch a badger) weren’t quite what I had in mind but made us all laugh just the same. Peter Gordon and Joe Hobbs should get a mention in here somewhere and so must my sister Julie Willmott and cousin John Harris. Thanks to Martin Foale for his suggestion, Lucian Randall and all at Blake Publishing.
If this book is a roaring success then all of them should share the credit in some small way. If, however, it turns out to be an unmitigated disaster, then they can have all the credit themselves and leave me out of it.
Albert Jack–Guildford, January 2005
Albert Jack supports the MacKinnon Trust, a registered charity working to raise awareness in mental health issues such schizophrenia and the care needed by those who suffer and their families.
www.mackinnontrust.org
Albert Jack’s website is at
www.albertjack.com
www.passionmonkey.com
About the Author
Albert Jack is a writer and researcher whose passion for solving the mysteries of the English language has taken him to dusty libraries throughout the world in search of the facts behind the phrases we use every day. He lives in Guilford, England.
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Copyright
RED HERRINGS AND WHITE ELEPHANTS. Copyright © 2004 by Albert Jack. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2005 ISBN: 9780061835155
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN-10: 0-06-084337-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-084337-3
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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