Category: Musings

I have bought 2 hardback books lately, chosen from the round display tables in Waterstones. I’m pleased with my purchases but they pose several questions. Both books were first published in 2025 and here they are already, vastly reduced, indeed literally half the original price. Do publishers almost plan for this eventuality? I would not […]

My granddaughter says that she knows within 2 pages of a book whether she will like it and want to read it … or not. Some people may feel they decide even sooner than that. If we could clearly put into words what it is that hooks us into a book then authors would be […]

Depending where you look, pseudonyms and nom de plumes are synonymous…or not. If you want to be pedantic then nom de plume is obviously a name for writing whilst a pseudonym would be simply a name to hide your identity. However, most websites seem to use them interchangeably. This subject came to my mind because […]

The Sunday Times is starting a campaign to get children reading for pleasure once again. Teachers would offer many reasons why this has become a national crisis, largely because of the intense pressure put on the curriculum  and lessons that have to be taught to the test but as always it is complicated and as […]

Of lately, I seem to have a habit of looking at the end of a book before I start reading it. I hasten to add that I don’t mean that I read the very end of the story, although I do know people who (very strangely) do that. Instead what I’m after are those strange […]

Have just read a review of a new book about the letters of TS Eliot. This is published by Faber (of course!) and costs £60 so it won’t be finding a place on my bookshelves. Interestingly Eliot comments that he regards free verse as merely notes for a poem, particularly the work of DH Lawrence. […]

‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs,’ so says the bestselling author. Also, ‘If you’re describing what a character says, just write “he said,” … not “he pleaded” or “he gasped.” Well, I wonder how many lessons I taught on both these parts of English language. Also, disparaging description, his writing must be spare, […]

I very much enjoyed watching Wimbledon tennis a couple of weeks ago and inevitably I heard many interviews with the players. The rather facile questions that they are asked always include those about how they feel e.g. ‘how do you feel about playing on Centre Court?’ etc., etc. At that point I realised that there […]

I love the way language ebbs and flows. In many ways usage is all. The function of language is to communicate and maybe if it does that then it can’t be wrong. However, as I get older, it can be quite startling to realise that a word that has been used as an adjective and […]