Trickle down? Level up? Double down? Own up? Bring down? Build up? Hunker down? Cheer up! Pipe down! Speak up! Drill down? Dig up? Cast down? Chin up! Take down? Set up? Swallow down? Throw up? Come down! Meet up! Kneel down! Stand up! Draw down? Pull up? Calm down! Het up! Write down? Check […]
Category Archives: Creative Writing
2026 Ahem
PEAGE PINTXOS BANISTER: May 2026
Ahem, I travelled down to La Hune with Jurrat and Jessie in a well-loaded car [...]
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01
Jun
Jun
2026 Ahem
MUSKETS SHRIFT RAPT: April 2026
Ahem Alli and I were up and early on Good Friday to be driven with [...]
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30
Apr
Apr
Professional Writing Writing
They awoke…
The hidden past of the bisexual pronoun Those of all political and cultural persuasions [...]
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2026 Ahem
BABY FAIRYLAND TWITTEN: March 2026
Ahem I was about to open a pile of birthday cards when I was encouraged [...]
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30
Mar
Mar
2026 Ahem
QUOTIDIAN HAMMERHEAD HIPPO: February 2026
Ahem Rain and colder weather in southern England dominated the first few days of the [...]
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02
Mar
Mar
07
Jun
Jun
The Celtic tribe of the Gauls, choosing the site for Loudun several centuries before the creation of Christianity, named it Lugh-Dun, ‘a fortified hill dedicated to the God of Light’. In the Middle Ages, Loudun was located on the edge of three provinces: Poitou, Anjou, and Touraine. Long and dead-straight roads span like spokes of […]
Early this morning, in our house in the Tarn-et-Garonne, in southwest France, I awoke in the darkness. Not exactly unusual for me these days but I had an idea that although it was still very dark outside, it was close to dawn. I checked my watch: it was around 5.30am. Normally I only open the […]
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Jun
Jun
A hyperbaton is when you put words in an order that seems or sounds wrong, which is difficult to do with confidence in English. When almost everything else in the English language is so careless, lazy, and slapdash, the rules for English adjectival word order are throat-tighteningly strict. Punishment for this crime, as ever, is […]
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Sep
Sep
Words are the least understood part of that crowded, undisciplined and noisy group of ill-fitting elements that together constitute communications. In fact, words often get in the way of communications, like rider-less horses in a race or like hooting cars in a traffic jam. We misunderstand each other every day, even when the meanings of […]
1. The Martyrs It wasn’t enough to take a deep breath, then expel it slowly in relief,as I rounded the slip road to the arterial Boulevard Latrille, wherethe cars were triple-stacked. Exhaust fumes corrugated the air.I had to climb closer to the breeze chugging from the air conditioningand remember when ice, snow and sleet wiped […]
Cote d’Ivoire Diaries November – December 2016 One early morning in a chilly, dark mid-November, I left a mist-engulfed Basel airport and emerged a few hours later into a golden afternoon wall of West African heat. I was picked up promptly at the airport and taken to a small studio flat in the north […]