Blog

It’s a bit odd, you might think, to go to the trouble of building a play area and then encourage people not to play in it.

Pupils at Sheffield’s Springs Academy are no longer allowed to use slang inside the school gates. Instead of ‘hiya’, they are to say ‘good morning’. Instead of ‘see you’, they are to say ‘goodbye’. No, Springs Academy is not training its pupils to be 1940s BBC radio presenters. It is teaching them about professionalism. As [...]

When I left Amsterdam for a new life in deepest East Sussex, learning to speak English was way down my list of priorities. The year was 1980 and I was a conceited 11 year old nobby-know-it-all.

There’s only so long that a person can live off pizza. So I’m learning how to cook.

How can ‘satisfactory’ be neither ‘good enough’ nor ‘acceptable’? My dictionary says it’s both.