Talking of the green, green grass of Wimbledon, there’s a fascinating blog post about lawns, their history and their uses at Mark Easton’s blog on the BBC Website. It seemed too appropriate not to pass it on!
Archive for the ‘Fiona Glass’ Category
Grass!
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, History, life on June 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What the *@#%* is a radgepacket?
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, writing on February 25, 2009 | 9 Comments »
The mysterious radgepacket…
I’m in a slightly weird position here. A few weeks ago I had a short story accepted by Byker Books for their latest anthology, which has the utterly unforgettable title of ‘Radgepacket – Tales From the Inner Cities Volume 2′. Of course, I was delighted – but I was also slightly baffled. And [...]
Apostrophes on street signs
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, language, life on February 4, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Birmingham City Council has been getting a lot of stick lately for its decision not to use apostrophes on street signs.
As a writer part of me does worry about this. It’s yet another erosion of the traditions of our language and grammar, and yet another blow to the trusty old apostrophe, the use of which [...]
Separated by a common language #2
Posted in Fiona Glass, writing, tagged grammar on October 23, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Pretty much everyone these days knows about the obvious differences between British and American English – the sidewalks and pavements, the faucets and taps, the gottens and gots. What fewer people know, and I only found out from working with American editors, is the occasional gulfs in grammar between the two languages.
Take passive, for [...]
It’s official – Hobbiton is really… Birmingham?!
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, Scenery, life, writing, tagged Birmingham, Tolkien on September 6, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Fans of Lord of the Rings might not automatically associate the rural landscape of The Shire with Britain’s buzzing second city, but the fact is that Tolkien grew up in Birmingham, and when he came to write his books he peppered them with local settings. In particular, The Shire was heavily based on the south-eastern [...]
Bumble Hole is 150 years old!
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, life, tagged Birmingham, canals, nineteenth century on August 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
No, I’m not making this up. There really is a place in England called Bumble Hole. It’s in the famous Black Country (West Midlands) and sits at one end of the old Netherton Canal tunnel. Actually, it’s the tunnel which is celebrating its milestone anniversary, to much flag-waving and partying during the week. It was [...]
Brit Clinic #whatever *g*
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, clinic, life on July 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Eeek, I’ve just realised it’s the last Friday of the month today, and time for our latest Brit clinic. If there’s anybody out there, and not lazing by the pool eating ice cream, who wants to ask the combined Brains of Britain here a question, go right ahead.
As usual, please post your questions [...]
A very British quiz
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, life, tagged quiz, weather on July 16, 2008 | 5 Comments »
This is just a lightning flash of fun – the BBC has a British summer weather quiz on its website right now. Pop along to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7509668.stm to test yourself against some surprisingly difficult questions. Mind you, I would say that. I only scored 3 out of 10…
The Friday Britclinic
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, clinic, writing, tagged Britclinic on June 27, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Don’t worry – we haven’t abandoned our Britclinics! We’ve just decided to hold them once a month rather than weekly, to give folks more time to gather questions together, and to leave more room for other posts.
The next formal Britclinic will be on Friday 25th July (the last Friday of the month) but if anyone [...]
What you didn’t expect to see at the beach…
Posted in Britain, Fiona Glass, life, writing, tagged beach, flash fiction on June 24, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I grew up a sand-grain’s blow away from a beautiful beach on the north west coast of England. We didn’t go all that often, but several times during the summer holidays Mum would gather a picnic together and we’d walk through the fields, the pine forest, and the sand dunes, and then onto the beach itself [...]
