You can't get Blood out of a Turnip

Inspired by the success of The Son of a Duck is a Floater , Apricots Tomorrow and Unload your own Donkey, this gathering of Italian proverbs is intended to bring to its readers a smile of recognition from the discovery of a pooled aphoristic wit. Each proverb is given a literal translation and an English equivalent. These are sometimes identical, perhaps because of their Biblical or Latin origin, sometimes they are bizarrely askance as the title illustrates. Illustrated by Kathryn Lamb