Home and dry?

Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “home and dry” in particular: We will not be home and dry until the votes have been counted.

My comments:

This is something a candidate running for a political position will say after finding himself (or herself) leading by a big margin as the votes are being counted.

The said candidate is leading by a big margin, that is, with a lot of votes still to be counted.

In other words, he still may lose if most of the rest of the votes go to an opponent.

Hence this cautious statement: We will not be home and dry until all the votes have been counted.

In other words, we can’t be totally comfortable until we’re absolutely sure of victory.

That’s, you see, what “home and dry” implies.

“Home and dry” is a British idiom meaning successful, safely and definitely so.

This idiom may originally be inspired by people coming home without getting wet from rainy weather. You see, the British Isles, with England in particular, are known for its wet and windy weather. That’s why the British talk the weather so much. Folks are constantly seen clutching an umbrella because it drizzles so often, and they can go days without seeing the sun.

In one of these drizzles, or a downpour if the worse comes to the worst, people will be very happy to arrive home dry, i.e. without getting wet.

That’s when they may congratulate themselves by saying, for example: Thank heaven, I’m home and dry – thank God I went out in the morning with an umbrella.

Being home and dry is the opposite of being home and wet, soaking wet, which is not a good feeling, to say the least.

Figuratively speaking, then, as a metaphor, being home and dry means that one is successful and safe, safe and sound and comfortable, especially after going through an ordeal or any kind of difficult situation.

In other words, they have succeeded comfortably and definitely.

Definitely, yes.

All right, let’s read a few media examples to make sure and make certain that we understand this expression fully and completely – to make sure, in fact, that we’re all home and dry:

1. Ian Richardson, who died yesterday aged 72, was one of the leading Shakespearean actors of the 1960s and 1970s; after 15 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company he changed course, subsequently starring in a host of television dramas, among them Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979), Mountbatten – the Last Viceroy (1986), Porterhouse Blue (1987) and House of Cards (1990).

As one of Peter Hall’s earliest contract players, Richardson was one of an ensemble whose members, acting regularly together, developed a coherent and recognisable style that was beyond the reach of actors brought together for individual productions.

Even the most cautious of critics predicted greatness for Richardson after he had been the leading man for the RSC at Stratford and the Aldwych in The Revenger’s Tragedy, Coriolanus, The Tempest, Richard II and Richard III. His magnificent voice, arresting stage presence and incisive delivery of verse brought authority to every role.

On his 39th birthday, however, Richardson was sitting in the No 1 dressing room watching the swans glide past on the Avon when he looked in the mirror and decided that he had accomplished all he had dreamed of achieving in the classics. It was time for a change.

He did nothing precipitate. He further enhanced his reputation by doubling the roles of Richard and Bolingbroke with Richard Pasco in Richard II and with equally admired performances as Iachimo in Cymbeline, Berowne in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor; but when he did make the break, in 1975, things did not go quite as he had anticipated.

Although he went to Broadway to play Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady (for which he wore “a proper suit” for the first time in 20 years and won a Drama Desk award), he soon learned how little his work with the RSC meant to the casting directors of films, television and the commercial theatre.

For a while he was on the dole – one morning he was even scrabbling round Covent Garden collecting fruit and vegetables. He also suffered a nervous breakdown, as a result of which he was sent to a nursing home run by nuns in Regent’s Park; after three weeks’ treatment he had recovered sufficiently to return home.

Then, in the late 1970s, Richardson scored his first signal success on television when the nation found itself transfixed by the adaptation of John Le Carré’s novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, in which he gave a mesmerising performance as the soigné MI6 traitor Bill Haydon. The star of the series was Alec Guinness (as George Smiley), and it was Guinness, Richardson said, who “taught me how to act for the camera”.

Once established as a screen actor, Richardson soon revealed a gift for impersonating public figures. He was Montgomery in Ike – The War Years (“Once I got the voice and strut right,” Richardson remarked, “I was home and dry”); Pandit Nehru in Mountbatten – the Last Viceroy; and the Falkland Islands’ governor Rex Hunt in An Ungentlemanly Act.

Richardson sometimes fretted about playing characters based on real people, fearing that, even if the character were dead, the performance might hurt surviving relatives and old friends. Margaret Thatcher warned him before he portrayed Nehru: “You had better get it right, otherwise my friend Mrs Gandhi will be very upset.”

In 1989 he was appointed CBE, and the following year created perhaps his most famous role on television, that of Francis Urquhart, the scheming government chief whip in House of Cards, for which he won a Bafta for best actor. His celebrated line, “You may very well think that; I couldn’t possibly comment” was quoted by John Major in the House of Commons.

- Ian Richardson, Telegraph.co.uk, February 10, 2007.

2. One of the most surprising moments of The Crown’s final season comes in the last episode, when Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton) is contemplating abdication, and announcing her decision to her family at the wedding of King Charles and Queen Camilla.

In real life, Queen Elizabeth never thought about abdication.

In 2003, she told George Carey, then-the Archbishop of Canterbury that abdication is “something I can’t do. I’m going to carry on to the end.” According to write Matthew Dennison in his book The Queen, Queen Elizabeth “did not contemplate abdication, she told her cousin Margaret Rhodes, ‘unless I get Alzheimer’s or have a stroke.’”

In 2021, royal historian Hugo Vickers explained to the Guardian, “One main reason why the Queen will absolutely not abdicate is unlike other European monarchs, she is an anointed Queen. And if you are an anointed Queen you do not abdicate.” (The monarch – now King Charles – is the head of the Church of England.) She never abdicated, and reigned for over 70 years until her death in September 2022 at her beloved Balmoral Castle.

In The Crown, the Queen ultimately decides not to abdicate (shocker) and her speech at Charles and Camilla’s wedding is short, funny, and sweet. In real life, the Queen did in fact discuss her horses in the toast. One guest told the Telegraph that Queen Elizabeth said, “They have overcome Becher’s Brook and The Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles” (referring to the Aintree Racecourse). She added, “They have come through and I’m very proud and wish them well. My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.”

A guest, Jilly Cooper, said, “Everyone was in stitches at the Queen’s speech. It was such a lovely affectionate tribute.” Royal correspondent Katie Nicholl wrote in The New Royals, “It was an unusually sentimental speech from the monarch and it captured the visceral sense of relief the couple had, in their fifties, being able to make their enduring love official.”

- What Did Queen Elizabeth Really Say at Charles and Camilla’s Wedding? TownAndCountryMag.com, December 26, 2023.

3. Mateo Kovacic scored twice as Manchester City overcame a dogged Fulham to pick up a first Premier League win in three games.

City dominated the early stages before Raul Jimenez’s outstanding backheel cross enabled Andreas Pereira to score from close range.

Adama Traore missed two big chances either side of that – being denied by Ederson in a one-on-one and then skying a shot from inside the box.

And City midfielder Kovacic made him pay.

His first was a first-time effort from a half-cleared corner that went in via a deflection.

And his second, shortly into the second half, was a much cleaner strike from the edge of the area.

There was almost a twist, as Traore beat Kyle Walker for pace before again shooting at Ederson.

In fact, City conceded several more chances before Jeremy Doku drifted in from the left and crashed a fantastic strike into the far top corner.

At that stage you thought surely City were home and dry but they left substitute Rodrigo Muniz free in the box to give Fulham renewed hope late on.

But Marco Silva’s side could not muster an equaliser.

City are now unbeaten in 50 home games in all competitions, the fourth English top-flight side to ever manage that.

- Manchester City 3-2 Fulham, BBC.com, October 5, 2024.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）