This is a book for everyone who has ever wondered why pubs should be called The Cross Keys, The Dew Drop Inn or The Hope and Anchor. You'll be glad to know that there are very good - strange and memorable - reasons behind them all.

After much research about (and in) pubs, Albert Jack brings together the stories behind pub names to reveal how they offer fascinating and subversive insights on our history, customs, attitudes and jokes in just the same way that nursery rhymes do. The Royal Oak, for instance, commemorates the tree that hid Charles II from Cromwell's forces after his defeat at Worcester; The Bag of Nails is a corruption of the Bacchanals, the crazed followers of Bacchus, the god of wine and drunkenness; The Cat and the Fiddle a mangling of Catherine La Fidele and a guarded gesture of support for Henry VIII's first, Catholic, wife Catherine of Aragon; plus many, many more.

Here too are even more facts about everything from ghosts to drinking songs to the rules of cribbage and shove ha'penny, showing that, ultimately, the story of pub history is really the story of our own popular history.

About the Author
Albert Jack has written a series of bestselling books that explore the strange stories behind things we take for granted: that's everything from nursery rhymes - Pop Goes the Weasel - to everyday phrases - Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep. When not engaged in research, he lives somewhere between Guildford and Cape Town, where he divides his time between fast living and slow horses, neat vodka and untidy pubs. This is the book he has always wanted to write.


Book Information
ISBN 9780141043432
Author Albert Jack
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 224g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 17mm