Lady Susan by Jane Austen (1794),(in Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sanditon).Oxford World’s Classics, 2008 (1871). Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the…| Calmgrove
What’s Bred in the Bone (1985) by Robertson Davies, No 2 in The Cornish Trilogy. Penguin Books, 2011 (1991). ‘That alchemy is a pretty kind of game Somewhat like tricks o’ the cards to cheat a man With charming.’ — ‘The Alchemist’ (1610) by Ben Johnson. This, the absorbing central title in Robertson Davies’s Cornish … Continue reading The Alchemical Master| Calmgrove
A close up of the Episkopon Tower, Trinity College, the University of Toronto (Guy Grant Taylor, 2015) The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies in The Cornish Trilogy, Penguin Books, 2011 (1981). ̵…| Calmgrove
Roadside Picnicby Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky.Translated by Olena Bormashenko,foreword by Ursula K Le Guin, afterword by Boris Strugatsky, 2012.Gollancz, 2012 (1972). Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;The proper study of mankind is man. From ‘An Essay on Man: Epistle II’ by Alexander Pope Superficially a speculative thriller, the Strugatsky brothers’ Roadside Picnic … Continue reading A being darkly wise| Calmgrove
The third temptation of Christ: Christ and the devil on a pinnacle of the temple.’ Coloured chromolithograph after John Martin. Wellcome Collection. (CC BY 4.0) One Billion Years to the…| Calmgrove
Wandering among Words 13: Incongruity incongruous (adj.)from Latin incongruus, inconsistent, not agreeing, misfit, unsuitable. Call me sad if you like but I’ve always liked puns, Christmas cracker riddles and dad jokes, however groanworthy they indubitably are. For instance, ‘What do you get when you cross a policeman with a skunk?’ – ‘Law and odour.’ Okay, … Continue reading Lexical paradoxes| Calmgrove
Wandering among Words 12: the 1948 show Normally in this ‘Wandering among Words’ feature I explore a group of words or phrases related through meaning, sense and/or etymology. This time, however, I’m going to resort to a gimmick, by examining words and phrases which first appeared in print seventy-five years ago – in 1948. (Not … Continue reading Gimmickry| Calmgrove
Wandering among Words 11: Bookworm bookworm (n.)1590s, “person devoted to study;” by 1713 in reference to the larvae of certain insects that eat holes in the bindings and paper of old books. etymonline.com We all know the term bookworm, don’t we, and doubtless judge ourselves each to be a representative of that particular genus. Forget … Continue reading Bibliophages, unite!| Calmgrove
2nd-century CE funeral portrait of a Roman Egyptian officer wearing a gold wreath (detail). Faiyum, Egypt. Wandering among Words 10: Pupil What’s the link between a celebrity and a chrysalis,…| Calmgrove
Wandering Among Words No 9: Exclamation! I came across an interesting neologism the other day which, as usual, had me musing — and I thought, again as usual, I would share them with you. Here it is, courtesy of the popular BBC TV panel show QI and its busy QI elves on Twitter: Bangorrhea. Hint: … Continue reading Warning!| Calmgrove
Image credit: WordPress Free Media Library Wandering Among Words 7: Gramarye If, as Alice Hoffman is everywhere quoted, “Books may well be the only true magic,” then she is only followi…| Calmgrove
