English language Category
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-70) remains one of Britain’s most influential writers, producing Victorian classics such as…
“Shanks’s pony”
The expression to “go by Shanks’s pony” means to walk. It usually implies that there is no…
What’s the weather like today?
Weather forecasts in the UK are often wrong, due to the ever-changing nature of the jet streams…
The CILIP Carnegie Medal
“Words are mastered by meeting them, not by avoiding them.” This was Geraldine McCaughrean’s advice to publishers…
Samuel Pepys’s Diary
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was born and lived most of his life in London and began writing his…
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (1818-48) was part of a tragic but creative family in Yorkshire which produced…
Sir V.S. Naipaul
The writer Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad (“V.S.”) Naipaul died in August 2018, just short of his 86th birthday.…
“It’s just not cricket”
Cricket has been played in England as far back as the 1500s, but it was in the…
Land’s End
Land’s End is on the south-western tip of mainland England in the county of Cornwall and the…