I spent yesterday evening pottering about a beautiful exhibition on the tiger in Asian art , and wondering to myself whether the River Tigr...

Dysania is, apparently , the state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning . I assume that this means that you are drowsy and d...

Once upon a time, in 568 AD, Italy was invaded by men with very long beards. The Italians called them langobards , from the Latin Longa Bar...

Yesterday's Evening Standard had an article on "The Secret World of Gang Slang". It was full of the usual nonsense about the...

I worry about these posts on useful words , you know. Sometimes I wonder what the merry hell is the point of telling you, dear reader, abou...

Once upon a time, people would go begging from door to door on All Hallows Day. Now they do it on All Hallows Eve, which is, I'm told, ...

If you want to know what Jesus looked like you need only inspect a drainpipe in Coventry where his face miraculously appeared. I've nev...