A FANTASTIC FOLLOW-UP
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RED HERRINGS was my favourite book of last year and now (just as my friends were breathing a sigh of relief that I had stopped dragging every conversation round to the weird and wonderful origins of the words we use every day) here comes the sequel and it's even better. Did you know, for instance, that 'buttering someone up' comes from the ancient Hindu custom of throwing globs of clarified butter at the statues of gods; that 'nailing your colours to the mast' came from captains, thinking that they were unlikely to win a sea battle, nailing their flag to the mast so their more cowardly crew couldn't winch it down and surrender; that saying something has 'got legs' comes from wine tasting -- and there's hundreds more stories where those came from... I can't imagine anyone not loving this book.
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