I'll say one thing for astrology, it means that absolutely everybody knows a little bit of Latin. Gemini are the twins, Capricorn is th...

Just a quick link today to a piece I wrote for the New York Times on the beautiful language of banking .

I've written another book! Well, I say book, it's an essay for the Independent Booksellers Association on why bookshops are a Good ...

When Joyce is too simplistic, Tolstoy too brief, Kafka too jolly and Lautreamont too bourgeois, it's time to read The Hunger Games . I...

The other day, I was writing a text message in which I said that I was raring to go; and it struck me that rare is one of those odd verbs ...

You don't have to commit adultery to be an adult, but you do need to have been an adolescent. I was rather surprised to find that the...

Just a link today to this fantastic article on the five best punctuation marks in literature . Just the sort of thing I; love. Also, I...