Don't judge a book by its cover — or its title

The vagaries of the English language, not to mention the annoying propensity of authors — and their editors — to be allegorical and tangential, can lead to some very honest gaffes. Bollywood's Shilpa Shetty is probably not the only one apparently unaware of the fact that Animal Farm is not really a children's book at all but something called a 'dystopian novel', aimed at excoriating authoritarian tendencies among those in power. After all, George Orwell's book was turned into an animated film back in 1954 — long before such celebrated Disney classics featuring animals such as 101Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp — and was also made into a television movie in 1999. So, people can be forgiven for thinking its title and storyline are straightforward and make a case for animal welfare.

If writers and editors cannot be persuaded to discard their affinity for analogies and metaphors, there should at least be some crash courses on satire and sarcasm for those drawn to the English language without being aware of its pitfalls. It may also be beneficial to widely publicise the old English idiom that warns readers not to "judge a book by its cover". Indeed, it should also probably include the rider, "Nor its title", considering how many of them are utterly misleading for those of a more literal rather than literary bent of mind.