Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You: Word Play for Word Lovers

Do you engage in chiasmus?What do Mae West, John F. Kennedy, H.L. Mencken, and the world’s greatest wits and wordsmiths have in common? They all indulged in chiasmus - an act as old as civilisation itself. Chiasmus is a literary device in which word order is reversed to hilarious or poignant effect. When Mae West said, ‘It’s not the men in my life, it’s the life in my men’, she was using chiasmus; when William Shakespeare wrote, ‘better a witty fool than a foolish wit’, he was doing the same. Dr Mardy Grothe has compiled hundreds of instances of chiasmus in this whimsically illustrated collection, bringing this witty and thought-provoking device out of obscurity and into public imagination. In these pages, you’ll find the perfect literary comeback and discover how to make you own.