BY THE SUNDAY TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A SHORT HISTORY OF DRUNKENNESS
Discover the unpredictable origins and etymologies of our Christmas customs this festive season.
For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas.
We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas, etymologically speaking, means "Go away, Christ". We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularising sweet wrappers.
Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.
'Witty and revelatory. Blooming brilliant' Raymond Briggs
'Everything we ever thought about Christmas is wrong! Great stuff' Matthew Parris
Über den Autor Mark Forsyth
Mark Forsyth, 1977 in London geboren, studierte Literatur und Linguistik an der University of Oxford. Sein besonderes Interesse gilt der Semantik und Worten, die in der Alltagssprache nicht mehr verwendet werden. In seinem Blog »The Inky Fool« teilt er seit 2009 seine Liebe zur Sprache. Er lebt in London.