Tired Clichés and Fine Familiar Phrases
A few weeks ago LinkedIn invited me to contribute to some teaching materials for writers. The subject was avoiding clichés. As usual, I found myself objecting: it’s true that a badly-placed cliché can stop...
Technical Writing
I was recently surprised by a piece of writing that was, yes, technical without a doubt, but also really good -“good” being, for me, some combination of absorbing, accessible, illuminating, funny, and memorable. Why...
The Master Gardener’s Journal
If you keep a journal, you probably have your reasons, whether you consider yourself a writer or not. It is often said that such writing can be therapeutic, even transformational. The recent film Master Gardener provides a...
The Argonauts: book review
It’s relatively easy to admire a book that acknowledges or expands perspectives you largely share, especially if is skilfully written. That’s not the reason I admire The Argonauts, however. This takes a reader —...
The Wonderful Power of Writing
In addition to being a marketable skill on LinkedIn, writing is — or was — an awe-inspiring technology, representing a power to make language go beyond one person’s limits in terms of time, space...
A Brand of Writing
A couple of months ago I attended a two-day Masterclass in Food Writing at the British Library (for me, always an awe-inspiring institution). Designed and taught by the food writer Mallika Basu, the class...