Wee tim’rous beastie: wouldn’t you be with that bird of prey in pursuit? As Burns Night beckons, what better occasion to savour some of his poetry. Celebrations to mark the birth of Robert Burns are held in venues from eastern Scotland’s Glamis Castle to the Birmingham Whisky Club 7 hours south. Then there’s the homage… Read more »
We all have way too much to do, whether for work or all the rest of it. All the more reason then to take 10 minutes here and there to read a book… Relaxing? For sure. Develops our skills including writing? I’d say so. Reading fiction also helps us become more empathetic, I’ve often heard… Read more »
Bats in your belfry… Zombies, ghouls and skeletons giving you goosebumps… Halloween is getting increasingly hard to ignore. Fan or not of fright night, leave the eye of newt and lizard’s leg to simmer in the cauldron then join us on a meander around 9 Halloween-themed words. Poetry is included – you decide whether that’s… Read more »
Football commentators, usually ex-players of the beautiful game, often face criticism for using clichés. (A game of two halves, anyone?) At the end of the day, and when all’s said and done, why should they get all the flak – or have all the fun*? As England faces Colombia in Moscow, here’s a brief meander… Read more »
You arrive in a country, thinking you have a fair grasp of the language. Then along comes a word or expression that bamboozles, confuses — or perhaps just delights… Grab a magic carpet, prick up your ears and join us for a whistle-stop tour of eight linguistic lovelies. Botswana / Botswana: reetsa It’s a command that… Read more »
My dad — who moved on to the great blogosphere in the sky, as he might have put it himself, a few years back now — had consistent, unwavering “brand values”. Brand is what brand does, I heard RBS head of marketing David Wheldon say at a conference a while back. This isn’t about banking… Read more »
Whatever sound and fury at the moment with Brexit bickering back and forth, the election’s second round in France at the weekend is, as they might say, incontournable. No treatise here on Macron vs Le Pen and politics outre-Manche. Rather a brief meander, in no particular order, around things French and language. (Excuse the lack of French… Read more »
It’s so often out there, not here at the screen, that ideas percolate… True enough, if I wasn’t a lover of words and language I would probably be in the wrong line of business. Here are a few things that have caught my eye — or made my ears prick up — recently. Braggadocious: Whatever your… Read more »
