Know Your Onions

Know Your Onions by Allan Goodbrand is the kind of book that I like and which are always good to find in your Christmas stocking.

It is described as a "light-hearted look at popular idioms and sayings" and that is exactly what this book is.

If you always wondered why a hat trick is called a hat trick, why a red herring means something that distracts us from our goal, why our bacon is saved, why your timbers might be shivered, what the Whole Nine Yards is, why we go from pillar to post, why it is a dime a dozen, who was Bob and whose uncle was he and what is a Dog Day of Summer?

Allan gives explanations for each phrase in  the book and offers alternative explanations to the origin of a saying referenced to in  the book should there be multiple explanations for the origins  of a phrase or saying.

The book is written in an amusing, conversational tone and is ideal for either reading straight through or for dipping into multiple times after Christmas dinner and before the Queen's Christmas speech.

This book is an ideal Christmas present for people of any and all ages and is published at £9,99 by the Book Guild. It is available through the That's Books and Entertainment bookshop, links to which are to be found on the righthand side of this review.