SAD times for the pedants among us. To start with, the man who waged a lifelong war against misuse of the apostrophe has met his own full stop. Then, as if to add insult to injury, that weird Californian couple who once were royal have continued  their verbose mangling of the English language. The first of these events occurred on 30 March 2021 with the death at the age of 97  of John Richards, founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society. The society, a wonderful example of British eccentricity, was launched by Richards in 2001 to preserve the correct use of… Continue reading

AS a person of interest, Meaghan Markle usually rates way down the list of those spotlighted celebrities who engage my attention. Almost off the scale; at the lowest end. As I feel she is considered by most people apart from those sad sacks to whom all gossip is more precious than oxygen; the mainstay of their existence. The Duchess of Excess Sussex is my Marmite. Take it or leave it. In my case, one finger dipped into a dab of the ghastly stuff was enough for a lifetime’s abstinence. Flashed into my awareness, registered high on the avoidance scale and… Continue reading