Humpty Dumpty

In the days of sail every boy and probably every girl was familiar with words like mizzen, shroud and ratline. They also knew all about...

Two things matter in Iceland. One is the language, which has hardly changed at all in a thousand years and is now defended by an annual...

Gallio was boss in Corinth. He had powers of life and death. He did not suffer fools gladly. When opponents of Paul sought to bring the...

Of one thing about the Bible we can be certain. It was not brought into being by a contingent of Samuel Smileses and Grub Street hacks...

Blue plaques remind us that talented people once lived in our locality. Sometimes whole houses perform that function. And then there are...

Thanks to an all-star cast and a big budget, we are familiar with the phrase ‘The Longest Day’. We hardly notice the close connection...

It is a worthwhile exercise to search for the best opening sentence in English literature. Worthwhile, because if it is flabby or...

The appalling events in Myanmar and the treatment of Uyghurs by China make us stop and think about what it means to be a Christian and a...

Kidnapping and hostage-taking are, unfortunately, regular features of our age. Equally regular are government statements that no ransom...

Think of razors and you think of Gillette, Philips and – more recently – Harry. You are unlikely to think of Occam. But in the 14th...

Everybody has heard of the encounter between Laplace and Napoleon. The mathematician was presenting to Napoleon a theory of the universe....

A great conflagration in 1834 destroyed the seat of Parliament and led to the building we are familiar with from the labels on HP sauce...

We no longer speak the kind of English that once prevailed. Colourful English has been seen off. Polysyllables – i.e. bureaucratic jargon...

The phrase ‘for the birds’ commonly consigns something worthless – usually what is seen as a misguided belief – to the trash-pan. Often...

It is no surprise that a north London parish is seeking a divorce from its patron. What is surprising is that patrons are rarely troubled...

Yes, thank you very much. We get along nicely with our stock of three-letter words. Not just the hoary old household terms – bin, mud,...

I can’t say I enjoyed completing the census booklet any more than I enjoyed completing income tax returns. As with multiple choice exams,...

‘Humpty,’ I said. ‘Do you know how to remove an infected tusk from a full-grown elephant?’ Humpty peered inquiringly over his glasses at...