Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep by Albert Jack

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About Albert Jack

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Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep

The Origins of Even More Phrases We Use Every Day

» Albert Jack

Penguin
Paperback : 28 Aug 2008

£7.99

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Synopsis

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.

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Interview

Albert Jack on Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep

Often, the first question I am asked in every interview I give is ‘where did you get the idea in the first place’. And that is easy to answer. After I had finished a previous book, which is called Sounds From the Street, a biography about a band called The Jam, I started looking around for a new subject. Sounds From the Street was selling very well, for a music biography, but that type of book is usually tucked away on shelves in the music sections of bookshops, which are three floors up and at the back of the store. At the time I used to look at all the trivia type gift books piled on high on the tables by the front door and under the tills and I had my ‘John Lennon’ moment. Remember the quote of his when he first saw Elvis perform on stage?

‘Now that looks like a good job, I’d like to do that..!’

Well that’s what I thought too. So I started casting around for ideas and thought firstly of a music trivia book followed by a sports trivia title or perhaps a combined volume, but somehow I couldn’t make them work. Then, one day in December 2003, I was in a pub in Guildford and a friend of mine came in looking like somebody had run over his cat. He explained he had been out painting the town red the previous evening and now felt like someone was trying to push a knitting needle through his ear, so I suggested he have a hair of the dog.

‘Good idea’ he said, turning to the barman, ‘one of those please’.

Now the barman is Colombian and, although he speaks very good English, stared at us blankly before saying ‘But dogs aren’t allowed in this pub’. That got us thinking and we started wondering where all these little phrases came from and why they are so natural for us to use as an everyday part of our language, especially given the actual words we use mean nothing at all in the context of a conversation we are having.

Before long the Guvnor fetched us up a square meal, but we had already been there a while so before I reached the end of my tether I decided to make my way home. It was raining cats and dogs outside so, I bit the bullet, and making sure I set off on the right foot, made my way home through the rain. Before long I had discovered many of these phrases actually do have origins that are traceable throughout history and some have emerged from a single event.

Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep is in my humble opinion better than my last book. Part of the reason for this is because the new book has been written with much more confidence – having a bestseller under your belt tends to have that effect! But also, many of the phrases for Shaggy Dogs came from readers’ letters and it’s great to know that people are enjoying my work.

Albert Jack
September 2005