As former Home Secretary Amber Rudd learnt last week, “coloured” is not an acceptable word to describe people of black and minority ethnic background. It is not acceptable here in the UK in 2019, and has not been for many decades, assuming it ever was. I have encountered many people over the years who had… Continue reading Word of the week: coloured
My school career lasted exactly 40 terms. There were 6 years (or 18 terms) of primary education, then 7 years (21 terms) of secondary, and a final term after A-Levels for Oxbridge exams. I missed plenty of school days through minor illnesses, at least a few days per term with colds or even the odd… Continue reading The full extent of my truant behaviour: three lessons
Last week’s trip to see “The Two Noble Kinsmen” at Shakespeare’s Globe prompted some familiar thoughts about venues and performances. There are certain theatres that I have been to many times over the years and whenever I return to them my mind is always taken back to previous visits. The Shepherds Bush Empire is one… Continue reading More thoughts about Shakespeare’s Globe (23 down, 15 to go) and other venues
Today, as you can read in this piece from the Independent, a “pop-up” Shakespeare theatre has opened in York. The Oxford Dictionaries website tells us that pop-up denotes “a shop or other business that opens quickly in a temporary location and is intended to operate for only a short period of time”. In recent years… Continue reading Word of the week: pop-up
Last night, for the first time in over a decade, I attended an evening performance at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre here in London. I have been to many matinees there over the last ten years, but nothing with a start-time later than 4pm. The play that prompted me to miss every minute of Spain’s 1-0 win… Continue reading “The Two Noble Kinsmen”
Last night, courtesy of my son’s godmother Angela, I had a most enjoyable evening watching the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Coriolanus” at the Barbican. This means that I have now seen at least two different stage productions of every Shakespeare play. I make no apologies for making lists and crossing things off them, on… Continue reading “Coriolanus” and completing the set, twice
“O’er” is defined simply enough on this page from Macmillan Dictionaries as “a word meaning over, used in poetry” (adverb, preposition, literary). It came to mind at a funeral mass I attended earlier today. Some of the hymns contained words with apostrophes to make them fit in with the melody, words like spread’st, Heav’n and… Continue reading Word of the week: o’er
A trencherman is someone who enjoys food, a hearty eater. An archaic meaning of the word is someone who sponges off others, a parasite. I finally looked it up today, having come across it over the years and not been in a position to do so, most recently while reading Marcus Berkmann’s “A matter of… Continue reading Word of the week: trencherman
I indulged myself earlier this week and watched the 1973 British horror movie “Theatre of Blood” again. It’s the first time I’ve seen it since the 1980s, and therefore the first time since watching and reading every Shakespeare play. As the movie’s IMDB page puts it succinctly, “a Shakespearean actor takes poetic revenge on the… Continue reading “Theatre of Blood”
Concordance: it’s both an abstract noun (something you can’t see, hear or touch) and a concrete noun (something you can see, hear or touch). An alternative description for a concrete noun is “something that you can put in a wheelbarrow” (though it might need to be a very big wheelbarrow). The abstract meaning of concordance… Continue reading Word of the week: concordance
The Compartments 