The Usual Suspects and Other Cliches: Names and Shames More Than 1,500 Familiar Words and Phrases Large type / large print edition

Cliches have never been flavour of the month with school teachers, editors or literary connoisseurs, and are potential banana skins for journalists and students. For most of us, preventing these old-hat expressions from punctuating our everyday conversations and writing is more easily said than done. Browsing through the entries, the reader will become aware of the myriad types of cliche, including simile (cool as a cucumber), quotation (damn with faint praise (Epistle to Doctor Arbuthnot, Alexander Pope)), doublet (odds and ends), and catchphrase (how to win friends and influence people). Betty Kirkpatrick once again spills the beans on over 1,500 of the most commonly used cliches. It is up to the reader to decide whether the use of cliche is flogging a dead horse, or exploiting a valuable means of cutting a long story short.