Neither this blog nor the English language would be anything without Sir Thomas Urquhart. He's one of the few authors to get his own ...

As I fly back to Blighty from South Africa tonight, the word that will be going round my head is soutpiel . It's a very rude, boorish a...

If you wish to practise a South African accent, the best sample sentence is, without doubt, "Turn right at the robot, my friend"....

It begins. The Horologicon will be launched into the icy waters of Cape Town this very evening at six o'clock. It won't reach th...

Having been in South Africa for all of a few hours, I have, of course, bought myself a dictionary. I can't help it and I admit that I...

   I'm flying to South Africa tomorrow to take part in the Open Book Festival . This involved numerous bits of paperwork and e-tickets...

Somebody else has been reading Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue , and has made a list of seventeen words for what I like to call...