- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Penguin (4 Oct 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0141024267
- ISBN-13: 978-0141024264
- Product Dimensions: 16 x 10.4 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 73,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
About the Author
ALBERT JACK has become something of a publishing phenomenon – with his huge bestsellers Red Herrings and White Elephants and Shaggy Dogs and Black Sheep clocking up hundreds of thousands of sales. He lives in Guildford when divides his time between fast living and slow horses, neat vodka and untidy pubs. But he still manages to squeeze in some sleuthing – and now he has turned his detective skills to solving the unexplained.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
June was not a happy lady. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
June was not a happy lady. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It must be easy to write a book like this. Simply gather a bunch of - for the most part - well known Urban Legends, and retell them in a superficial way.
The trouble with this book is that very few of the legends are actually debunked. We are led to believe that some of the stories may actually be true. But which ones? If you want to know, you won't find out here.
Jack has obviously done no real research. You could write a book like this by using an internet search for Urban Legends. Where he has debunked them, it has been in the most cursory fashion.
Incidentally, the Hook Legend. The most obvious debunk to me is to ask the obvious question: what mental asylum would allow a one handed psychopath to keep his hook? I suppose the Mad Axe Man gets to keep his axe, does he?
The trouble with this book is that very few of the legends are actually debunked. We are led to believe that some of the stories may actually be true. But which ones? If you want to know, you won't find out here.
Jack has obviously done no real research. You could write a book like this by using an internet search for Urban Legends. Where he has debunked them, it has been in the most cursory fashion.
Incidentally, the Hook Legend. The most obvious debunk to me is to ask the obvious question: what mental asylum would allow a one handed psychopath to keep his hook? I suppose the Mad Axe Man gets to keep his axe, does he?
33 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There's an urban legend doing the rounds that an author may have done his 'research' simply by visiting one noted urban legend debunking website. And then written his booked based on the content from said website.
Sound implausible?
We'll all the eveidence points to just that very thing happening with 'That's Bollocks!'. Indeed, the incorporation of 'urban legends' deliberately planted on said noted website in order to prove that you should not always believe a source just because it has been reliable in the past or has an air of truth about. However, the author does not seem to have realised that these so-called urban legends were effectively truth tests created by the site authors in order to prove a point.
If it is the case that the 'research' for this book simply consisted of re-hashing the genuine work of others, then it represents very poor standards at best, outright plagiarism at worst.
Sound implausible?
We'll all the eveidence points to just that very thing happening with 'That's Bollocks!'. Indeed, the incorporation of 'urban legends' deliberately planted on said noted website in order to prove that you should not always believe a source just because it has been reliable in the past or has an air of truth about. However, the author does not seem to have realised that these so-called urban legends were effectively truth tests created by the site authors in order to prove a point.
If it is the case that the 'research' for this book simply consisted of re-hashing the genuine work of others, then it represents very poor standards at best, outright plagiarism at worst.
Format:Paperback
This book is only about stories of legends (that are not even recognizable) and does not contain any old wives tales. It is not the what I was looking for.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Celebs and foafs
Albert Jack is to be commended on both introducing to the casual reader of books on urban myths and the snooty academic folklore establishment so many fresh contemporary legends. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Leander
Not Very Original
Quite an amusing collection of urban myths, but it's not particularly original containing much that has already been collected elsewhere. Read more
Published on 19 July 2009 by H. meiehofer
Superficial
It must be easy to write a book like this. Simply gather a bunch of - for the most part - well known Urban Legends, and retell them in a superficial way. Read more
Published on 3 July 2008 by M. Mason
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