{"id":181826,"date":"2023-11-25T15:16:17","date_gmt":"2023-11-25T15:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/?p=181826"},"modified":"2023-11-25T15:16:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T15:16:17","slug":"craig-brown-did-victorias-secret-inspire-king-of-cliches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/lifestyle\/craig-brown-did-victorias-secret-inspire-king-of-cliches\/","title":{"rendered":"CRAIG BROWN: Did Victoria's secret inspire king of cliches?"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRAIG BROWN: Did Victoria’s secret inspire king of cliches?<\/h1>\n

Occasionally, a phrase catches on like a virus, and is impossible to avoid.<\/p>\n

Last week, I was walking through Mayfair when I noticed a sign pointing to a courtyard. The sign said, ‘Mayfair’s best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, I passed a pub with a sign saying, ‘Mayfair’s best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

And then I passed a beauty salon, and guess what its sign said? ‘Mayfair’s best-kept secret.’<\/p>\n

‘Best-kept secret’ has become one of the most unavoidable phrases of our time: perhaps not quite so irritating as ‘See It. Say it. Sorted’, but getting on that way. It first came on the horizon ten years ago, when it was announced that a new book would reveal ‘Scotland’s best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Last week, I was walking through Mayfair when I noticed a sign pointing to a courtyard. The sign said, ‘Mayfair’s best-kept secret’. A few minutes later, I passed a pub with a sign saying, ‘Mayfair’s best-kept secret’ (Stock Image)\u00a0<\/p>\n

It turned out to be the old chestnut that Queen Victoria had a relationship with her servant John Brown \u2014 possibly the worst-kept secret in the world.<\/p>\n

Now everyone is at it. On the same day I went for my walk through Mayfair, Rishi Sunak welcomed David Cameron back to Downing Street saying that his return was the \u2014 yes \u2014 ‘best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if you put the words ‘best-kept secret’ into Google, up pop hundreds of millions of results, ranging from the title of a novel by King of the Cliche Jeffrey Archer to ‘a new modern and exciting hair boutique in the heart of Oldham’.<\/p>\n

‘Best-kept secret’ has become as much a cliche of travel writing as ‘sun-kissed beaches’ and ‘land of contrasts’. Forbes magazine recently called the island of St Vincent ‘the Caribbean’s best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

The Times newspaper seems particularly fond of the expression. The town of Manningtree is, it tells us, ‘the best-kept secret on the Essex\/Suffolk border’, while Jersey is ‘probably the best-kept secret in the British Isles’ and Namibia is ‘Africa’s best-kept secret for safaris’.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

John Brown wearing full Highland dress, ca. 1870-75<\/p>\n

The Dolomites are ‘Europe’s best-kept secret’, but then so, too, are Andalucia and Croatia. And for the cash-strapped community, ‘Pub car parks are now camping’s best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

One man’s best-kept secret is another man’s lucky escape.<\/p>\n

It’s a claim riddled with contradictions: after all, if a secret is so well kept, how come it is being mentioned at all? It’s a bit like standing in the middle of a crowded street shouting: ‘I’m the world’s shyest person!’<\/p>\n

Not long ago, ‘passionate’ was all the rage: passionate about pashminas, passionate about hair, passionate about history and so on. Ryman even boasted that it was ‘passionate about stationery’.<\/p>\n

Then the marketing people lost their passion for passionate, and overnight everyone had to become fanatical about everything: fanatical about fish, fanatical about handbags, fanatical about thongs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Dolomites are ‘Europe’s best-kept secret’, but then so, too, are Andalucia and Croatia. And for the cash-strapped community, ‘Pub car parks are now camping’s best-kept secret’. Pictured:\u00a0The Dolomites (Stock Image)<\/p>\n

My favourite was a sign on the Upper Crust Buffet at Ipswich Railway Station which read, ‘Fanatical about hot and cold baguettes’. Then everyone got fed up with fanatical, or perhaps it began to dawn on them that in the current climate fanaticism is not such a good thing.<\/p>\n

Anyway, you now can’t go anywhere or do anything without being told it is ‘the best-kept secret’.<\/p>\n

Often ‘best-kept secret’ is just an optimistic way of saying ‘unfashionable’. ‘With craft beer, designer beach huts and award-winning hotels, make this the summer you head for Suffolk’s best-kept secret \u2014 Lowestoft’ read an excitable travel piece in The Daily Telegraph last year.<\/p>\n

Amazon currently offers books called The Best-Kept Secrets For Living A Long Life, Metal Detecting’s Best-Kept Secrets, A-level Chemistry’s Best Kept Secrets and 7 Best Kept Secrets Of Public Speaking. Of course, the second these Best-Kept Secrets are published they become Not- Remotely Secret.<\/p>\n

Some were never secret in the first place: one of the seven best-kept secrets of public speaking turns out to be ‘practise, practise, practise’. Who would have thought it?<\/p>\n

And why should any of these skills be cloaked in secrecy?<\/p>\n

It’s not as though an A-level chemistry teacher would want to keep his pupils ignorant, or that, up to now, we all imagined that speaking in public is best left to chance.<\/p>\n

Whatever next? Taylor Swift: Pop’s Best-Kept Secret? The Toothbrush: Dental Hygiene’s Best-Kept Secret? The ‘On’ Button: Television’s Best-Kept Secret? Breathing: Best-Kept Secret For Staying Alive?<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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