The Netherland is not the most picturesque of countries: no-one comes here to be awed by the natural beauty of the landscape. Not unless they’re into straight lines and flat fields or are impressed by the fact that you sometimes have to go uphill to get to the sea. (This last not-so-natural phenomenon of the …
A few months ago, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to quit the European Union. An unexpected outcome, even for the ‘Brexit’ supporters. In the immediate aftermath of the referendum, there were all sorts of speculations about what the result meant for the UK, for Europe, for world trade. In the months since, the …
Do you know what I love about the English language? The fact that there are words which are either written the same, or sound the same (or both) but are not quite the same in meaning: ‘read’ for example, as in, ‘I read a book every night before going to bed’. So far so good. …
‘Ansbach’, ‘bottomness’ (nothing to do with your backside!), ‘black sanctus’: any idea what these words mean? Neither do I, or at least I didn’t until they featured in the Oxford English Dictionary’s ‘word of the day’ (I consult the dictionary’s website regularly for professional reasons). And that got me thinking – I work with the …
