Category: English language

The children’s stories about the accident-prone bear called Paddington, were written by Berkshire-born Michael Bond, CBE (1926-2017). They encompass three classic themes […]

A phoneme is the smallest unit of spoken sounds that together make up words (there are 44 in English) and a grapheme […]

The most famous Welsh poet is surely Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914-53), whose most prolific period came in his late teens. Heavy drinking […]

Author, playwright and screenwriter Alan Bennett (1934-), a Yorkshireman, began writing in 1960, when he was a member of the illustrious Oxford […]

Evidently there are far more British words for insulting people than there are for praising them, probably because insults sound funnier. Indeed, […]

Londoner Harold Pinter (1930-2008), writer for stage, screen and print, actor and director, was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. This […]

The relatively modern concept of ‘standard English’ has become known as Received Pronunciation (RP) or even ‘BBC English’. It was originally based […]

Sir P.G. (Pelham Grenville, nicknamed ‘Plum’) Wodehouse (1881-1975), from Surrey, became one of Britain’s best-loved and most accomplished writers. His literary genius […]

At the time of WW2 there were at least 50 distinct British dialects, some with derived names such as Cockney, Brummie, Scouse, […]

In 1967 Lord Jock Campbell (1912-94) from Dunbartonshire was about to head the development of the new town, Milton Keynes, following his […]