Words
Push-bike
Books that one often used to see in secondhand bookshops, when there were such things, were the World’s Classics editions…
How 'like' lost its way
A strange crisis has befallen like. It had long been an object of obloquy and vilification in two functions. The…
What’s so funny about ‘helpmeet’?
‘What’s so funny?’ asked my husband, accusingly, as I made an amused noise while relaxing with a copy of the…
Curry isn't racist
The latest casualty in the culture wars is an innocent-sounding word: ‘curry’. Apparently it’s inappropriate to use it, and incorrect…
Why the mangling of language matters
I thought that this week I would share with you a bunch of words and phrases which are currently overused…
The concrete truth about ‘Formica’
If I ever again accompany my husband to a medical conference in Spain, and want to tell my hosts that…
The shocking story of Charles and Mary Lamb: Slightly Foxed podcast reviewed
The Slightly Foxed podcast, like the quarterly and old bookshop of the same name, is almost muskily lovely. It’s the…
Are you guilty of ‘genteelism’?
‘Everyone’s been very kind to my husband and I,’ said someone behind me in a (spaced) queue. That is the…
What’s the difference between ‘reticent’ and ‘reluctant’?
Anna Massey had no dramatic training before appearing on stage in 1955 aged 17 in The Reluctant Debutante by William…
How ‘odd’ became normal
‘Is this not the oddest news?’ Harriet Smith exclaimed to Emma Woodhouse, on the news that Jane Fairfax and Frank…
What does it mean to go ‘stir crazy’?
My husband left a copy of The Spectator open on the table by his chair, next to the little cardboard…
Why we can’t count toast
‘Somebody loves me,’ said my husband, waving a copy of The Spectator above his head as though pursued by wasps.…
What were the words that defined 2019?
‘Come off it,’ said my husband when I told him that upcycling was the word of the year. His response…
What’s the different between ‘while’ and ‘whilst’?
‘Why is whilst only ever used in letters?’ asked my husband, casting aside an argumentative letter from his sister written…
The joys of Radio 4’s Word of Mouth
I first heard Lemn Sissay talking about his childhood experiences on Radio 4 in 2009. At that time he was…
The Lib Dems are wrong – it’s ‘ballocks’ to Brexit
I agree with James Joyce on the spelling ballocks. The Liberal Democrats made their MEPs wear T-shirts printed with ‘Bollocks…
Why is a book like a sarcophagus?
‘Is it like a packet of fags?’ asked my husband, less annoyingly than usual, but still in some confusion. I…
There’s a lot of interrogating going on – and not just by policemen
My husband sat in his usual chair, interrogating the contents of his whisky glass with his old, tired nose. In…
Names, like drink, go by fashion
‘Sounds like fun,’ said my husband, wearing a hat with the sign ‘Irony’ in its band. He had read a…
Why won’t the media call a cock a cock?
On the Radio 4 news at 11 o’clock last Saturday morning there was a joky report about roosters in Brisbane. The…
Michael Frayn’s new book is the most highbrow TV sketch show ever
Enough of big ideas and grand designs. Instead, here are 30 unusually small ideas from the giant pulsating brain of…
