School means holiday. Or, at least, it used to. Back in Ancient Greece, the Ancient Greeks divided their ancient days between work and le...

So, just a link today to my article in The Telegraph on the use of the useless "so".

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 ...