Posts Tagged: writer

  • William Safire as man of letters

    William Safire and his rules for writers

    William Safire (1929–2009) was an American political speechwriter, journalist, political columnist, and language expert who transformed his reputation from a fiercely partisan commentator of the right into a widely respected “man of letters”. Nixon’s speechwriter Safire began his career in public relations before becoming a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew. […]

  • Portrait of Franz Kafka. 2024 marks the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka who died 3 June 1924. His unique works have given us the adjective “Kafkaesque”

    What does it mean to be Kafkaesque?

    Kafka centenary As 2024 is nearing its end I have just discovered that an important milestone has almost passed by uncelebrated. This year marks the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka who died 3 June 1924 from tuberculosis at the age of 40. And while we sometimes see the adjective “Kafkaesque” thrown around in […]

  • An AI generated mock film poster headed FLOPBUSTER with an Indiana Jones like figure in the front with disgruntled scriptwriters.

    What is a tentpole flopbuster?

    This week (5 July 2023) I was drawn to an online BBC film review on the latest Indiana Jones film. It was headlined—Does Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny mark the era of the flopbuster. I love this word. Does it really need an explanation? It is of course a new word that combines […]

  • Barry Humphries an AI generated image half Dame Edna Everage

    No more chunder from Barry Humphries

    This week Australian comedian, Barry Humphries died (22 April 2023). I had often wished that we had seen more of Humphries and less of Dame Edna Everage, now they are all gone. His writing was masterful and he was an aficionado of the Australian vernacular language. A memorial to Humphries’ life will be the cementing […]

  • Artwork from Stranger in A Strange Land book grok was the martian language

    My my, hey hey is grok here to stay?

    It is a stretch of the imagination to suggest that our only Martian word is yet part of mainstream English but grok has survived for almost 50 years!

  • Part of cover of Magaizine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

    Dystopian visionary dies

    The author, J.G.Ballard, died 15 April 2009 (born 15 November 1930). He was known mostly for his successful autobiographical work, Empire of the Sun, but his work is found most often on science fiction shelves. His brand of science fiction created dystopian visions of society challenging his readers’ perceptions. As a young man I had read mountains […]

  • On Sunday (3 August 2008), Alexander Solzhenitsyn, died aged 89, in his home in the Moscow area. He, through great hardship, brought the Russian word gulag, into the mainstream of the English language.

    Goodbye to the man who gave us gulag

    On Sunday (3 August 2008), Alexander Solzhenitsyn, died aged 89, in his home in the Moscow area. He, through great hardship, brought the Russian word gulag, into the mainstream of the English language. His book, The Gulag Archipelago, was written in secret while he was living in the Soviet Union and published in Paris in […]