Dive in, splash around, skim and dip and spout about the latest quotations, metaphors, words and, of course, triologisms. You’ll feel better for it!
In praise of idiosyncratic spelling
Those were the days, when you spelled, or spelt, or spellt, a word as you saw fit. Then the spelling police took charge and we all fell in line....
Nonsense daubers
Folly, speaking from her light-hearted pulpit, lays into another bunch of self-serious fools, those who write books, or as she puts it, 'daub pure...
Unexpected ignorance, unexpected knowledge
Maggie Tulliver is a girl whose brightness and spirit are constantly curtailed and nearly crushed. Throughout her childhood she is...
Today’s diary entry
Always curious about the habits of journal writing and the choices people make in the materials they use, I liked the detailed...
Love bade me…
One of the most beautiful English poems, of great simplicity and generosity, by George Herbert. Much of his poetry is religious but his...
The history of books
An idea so intrinsic to reading books, particularly those you love and remember, that I had never consciously thought of it. Here,...
A quote to note
Drawing on thousands of sparkling, moving and inspiring quotations amassed during decades of attentive reading. To delight your mind and spirit and improve your presentations beyond belief.
Pocket money sexism
Tom Tulliver once again spurns his sister, putting her in her place in a depressing translation of worth of boy versus girl in terms of Christmas...
Brother and sister
George Eliot's Mill on the Floss is largely about the relationship between Tom and Maggie Tulliver, brother and sister. Her needy love for him and...
Why fight?
Rory Stewart's trek across Afghanistan allowed him to meet some colourful characters. Here he questions one of them to understand why he took up...
What’s the difference?
On his long trek across some of the remoter regions of Afghanistan, Rory Stewart found himself being presented as having a range of professions....
Metaphorically speaking
More marvelous metaphors on Mondays … Monday, metaphor day.
Like a kitten
This novel is to a great extent about the relationship between brother and sister Maggie and Tom Tulliver. She loves him fiercely and as a child is...
As helpless as …
The wonderful little girl Maggie, in a fit of pique and sorrow, hacks off her glorious dark curls and then succumbs to horror at the consequences,...
It runs in families like …
George Eliot uses an asthmatic simile to reveal the religious prejudices of her characters. If they considered that it runs in families 'like...
Life simile
What a surprising simile for life - at least in its easeful moments - likening it to a familiar tool worn to the shape of the fingers holding it,...
Triologisms
Bringing you pithy, evocative imagery in the form of three-legged microcosms of meaning. Updated on Tuesdays … Tuesday, triologism day! You’ll never see this day of the week in the same way again.
Sickle-shaped curves
We speak of 'hair-pin bends' for sharply curved roads, and I liked this place-and-time relevant equivalent. It is from a Hungarian trilogy of...
Ever-victorious life
In this vivid story set in war time Russia, a Communist officer is billeted in a humble household to give birth to her baby. Here, the ancient...
Torment-filled pupil
This doesn't refer to a struggling school child but rather the traumatic last moments of a horse in a war zone. Grossman has a capacity to bring...
Bandy-legged mongrel
This is from a wonderful fictional account of the (real) first dog sent into space by the Soviets. Her life as presented by Grossman is a parable of...
Ash-covered Vulcan
Lady Folly blithely explains why it is better to be merry Bacchus (or Dionysius) than any of the more serious gods, including in her summary...
Folly’s pedigree
Erasmus' timeless Praise of Folly has the foolish lady up in the pulpit, mocking all comers with humour and charm, and praising herself to the hilt....
Words
Sharing words that sparkle, appeal, intrigue or otherwise grab me, including those in other languages. And adoring alliteration, new words will be added on Wednesdays… Wednesday, word day. See you back here then.
The tum-ti-tums of poetry
The best and most memorable summary of the difference between an 'iambic', a 'spondee' and a 'trochee', by the author of a marvelous biography of...
The cuckolds’ collective
An imaginative collective noun for the poor cuckold, perhaps the last person to see, or believe, what is going on. I wonder if this originally meant...
Imp
Before reading Drury's splendid biography of the poet George Herbert, I knew 'imp' only as a small being of occasional mischievousness.But it is...
A threatening of …
What would you associate with 'a threatening'? Clouds? Storms? Thugs loitering on street corners, or skulking in doorways and dark alleys?No,...
Cumbrian sheep counting
Rory Stewart came across these numerals, apparently still used to count sheep by Cumbrian farmers. They trot off the tongue like spring...
Of farsang places
A measure of distance which has an echo of 'farflung', though no direct connection. It means one day's walk or journey, or a day's...
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