Allusions form a colourful extension to the English language, drawing on our collective knowledge of literature, mythology, and the Bible to provide us with a literary shorthand for describing people, places, and events. So a miser is a Scrooge, a strong man is a Samson or a hercules, a beautiful woman is a Venus or a modern-day Helen of Troy—we can suffer like Sisyphus, fail like Canute, or linger like the smile of the Cheshire Cat.

This completely new reference work explains the meanings of the allusions in use in modern English, from Abaddon to Zorro, Tartarus to Tarzan, and Cinderella to Rambo. The book is based on an extensive reading programme that has identified the most commonly-used allusions, and a wealth of quotations are included to illustrate usage, drawn from a range of authors and sources, from Thomas Hardy to Ben Elton, Charles Dickens to Bridget Jones’s Diary.