Description
Book SynopsisHow do you apologise when you're not sorry? Where can you make a fortune out of pretending to know the future? What's the best way to steal credit and avoid blame? These are the vital life skills that people need if they're going to make their way in the world. And they all involve one ingredient: flannel, the art of not saying what you mean. It's not exactly lying, but it's definitely not telling the truth. In Romps, Tots and Boffins, Robert Hutton brilliantly 'laid bare' the true meanings of the words we read in the papers. Following popular demand, he now turns his razor-sharp eye to the best, worst and most outlandish examples of waffle, fudging, obscurity, blame-shifting and point-scoring. In areas from politics to sports, academia, religion and self-help, it seems that glory, money and power flow far more freely to those who sidestep bald, ugly realities. You can steer a truck through the gap between a lie and the simple truth. This book tells you how to load the truck.
Trade Review"Brutally funny" -- Marcus Berkmann, Daily Mail; "The irresistible vade mecum of every prangmeister and cock-up artist." -- Boris Johnson, Mayor of London; 'a stocking-fillerish contribution for the political nerd in your life'--Helen Lewis, Guardian's best political books of the year; 'Confused? Of course you are. You're supposed to be. But help is at hand: Hutton's handbook cracks the everyday code of the euphemisms, evasions, avoidances and ambiguities that say less than they mean and mean the reverse of what they say' -- Iain Finlayson, The Times; 'Superb. Rare to find so much wit and insight in just 146 pages' -- Andrew Sparrow, political blogger at The Guardian; 'Darkly funny and expertly observed' -- Michael Deacon, parliamentary sketchwriter at The Telegraph; 'Hutton's 'translations' from what people say to what they mean are ten-chuckles-a-minute' --Matthew Parris, from the foreword
