I was fortunate enough to learn my trade in a time and place where that trade was a mysterious black art. Getting a job was easy. Getting my own way was easier still. Imagine my alarm when it transpired everyone had become a writer, and that I was no longer special at all. All those…
We’re reminded today by David Aaronovitch in the Times of why care with English usage and knowing the rules is more than simple pedantry or being ‘cute’. And it echoes what I’ve been saying for years – some might say ad nauseam, that in allowing the governing clerical classes to get away with bad English…
With no small degree of alarm, I noted that I had failed to write on my blog since 2nd January. Having been told by social media experts that it’s vital to blog often (daily if you can) I’ve nurtured a nagging fear for a few weeks now that my brand will have suffered… my online…
How many businesses don’t know what’s hiding in the back of the cupboard? A weekly domestic ritual at our house is the weekly shop. The routine is that we check the larder and the fridge-freezer (and underneath the kids’ beds) to see what we already have in supply and what needs replacing. Then a meal…
A Lesson for all Would-be Citizen Journalists Now it’s all well and good, people posting rants and unsolicited opinions on blogs and all over the web. Bodies like the NUJ have been up in arms about anyone with an internet connection and a gripe passing themselves off as credible reporters – and it’s true that…
This is a new term to me… one I heard on BBC Radio 4 earlier in the week, and it’s indicative of our times. For the life of me, I can’t recall who spoke the term, as it was largely in the background, but the passive/intrusive nature of radio embedded the term in my brain…