What kind of English do you fancy?
It’s just like buses. You wait for ages and ages for a bus to come along, and then three arrive together. Once upon a time I edited a lot of books in American English, but I haven’t been asked to…
Read More
In defence of fantasy
I’m coming out of the closet here. I read fantasy. I read science fiction. Not exclusively, and I’m very picky, but give me a flat(ish) world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on the shell of a giant…
Read More
The joy of words: collecting generalisations
As a lover of words and the power of language, I do adore a good generalisation. You know, the sort of wild statement that often sounds vaguely possible but which turns out, on closer examination, to be about as plausible as the…
Read More
Happy Howlerdays
Written howlers are universal. We all make them. Either we don’t realise we’ve made an error in the first place, or we didn’t read what we’d written, or perhaps some fingers slipped, or – of course – we did it deliberately to…
Read More
The cumulative effect of errors
I have far too many books. Partly this is down to having been in some way connected to the book trade for most of my working life, and partly it is down to the fact that I just love those rectangular…
Read More