November 2008 Archives

"Change my dear. And not a moment too soon!"

So said Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor having just regenerated from Peter Davison on the floor of the TARDIS. For the long-running sci-fi series ‘Doctor Who’, regeneration means a lot more than adding a new name to the opening credits. Change is at the core of the series format, and it is this constant transformation and evolution that has kept the series going for 45 years.

I don’t pretend to be a computer expert by any means. Okay, I know some html, have built a couple of (very) basic websites for fun and know how to plug USB cables in. But it isn’t like I am a qualified technical engineer.

To be perfectly honest, I still use Google every day to find out what half the words I’m reading actually mean.

If you've ever been told off by a parent for writing Xmas in your Christmas thankyou letters, then this is for you. If you've ever been criticied for abbreviation for writing Xmas, then this is for you. If you just love the wonderful world of words, then you're in the right place.

Like most children in 1970s Britain, I grew up watching Blue Peter. Very often, the show would feature a craft segment, usually involving tinfoil, toilet roll tubes and sticky back plastic. Invariably, rather that show you all the steps involved in building the Barbie shoebox house or the cardboard Dalek, the presenter would miraculously reveal the finished project from under the desk, announcing “And here’s one I made earlier.”

Well, I am about to pull the same trick on you, dear reader.

Should wordsmiths imbue compositions with dexterous and verbose adroitness? Or should writers use short, simple phrases?

I often come against amateur writers, particular in business, who insist writing should be a demonstration of language skill.

You may be aware that I’m a bit of a comic book geek. All my life I’ve adored superhero comics and I’ve been a serious collector for a couple of decades.

Problem is, collecting comics takes space – lots of it. Moving house last year and becoming engaged to Shelley meant that I had to be practical and cut down on the collecting. Nowadays, I am restricted to Daredevil and the classic Silver Age issues of Fantastic Four and The Amazing Spider-Man. But there is one area of comics that I can’t stop swapping hard-earned cash for – cheesy covers.

Only a few months now until one of the most awaited movie adaptations ever finally arrives in cinemas. ‘Watchmen’, by Alan Moore, has been through so many permutations since originally being commissioned soon after the original graphic novel was published twenty years ago. Attempts by Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass came and went with frustrating hints at what might have been.

As a teenager, I was obsessed by music. Yet I wasn’t buying the same records as my school friends. When they were running out to buy Duran Duran or Howard Jones, I would be at the other end of the shop grabbing the latest Joy Division twelve inch, Killing Joke single or Cocteau Twins album.