These limited edition prints are visual depictions of some of the wonderful terms we use to name groups of things. They’re beautiful to look at as well as revealing quite often charming and evocative words such as:
a zeal of zebras
a blessing of unicorns (which I’m convinced are real by the way. I mean, why bother giving them a collective noun if they don’t exist?)
an aurora of polar bears (yes, really!)
a murder of crows
a murmuration of starlings (what a lovely word!). And my favourite if only because I’ve was privileged to see two of these rare Cornish birds in flight: a chattering or clattering of choughs

I could go on, but I won’t. I’ll just direct you to Woop’s website so you can become obsessed too.

Woop Studios was founded by Miraphora Mina, Eduardo Lima, Harriet Logan, and Mark Faulkner. United by a love of graphic design, words and images they set up Woop to showcase the fascinating and quirky world of collective nouns.

They aim to be the definitive website for anyone who shares their fascination, and who enjoy words, images and learning.

I hope you enjoy them too.

I was given the calendar for Christmas, and I’m looking forward to unveiling a long forgotten word each day throughout 2012.

I’ve already discovered such gems as ‘toad-under-a-harrow’. Apparently it means a man whose wife not only henpecks, but makes sure the entire world witnesses the indignities he suffers at her hands. And I’ve leapt ahead to the weekend where I found ‘gubbertushed’ – used to describe someone with projecting teeth.

It’s funny how words from long ago seem so much more expressive somehow!

Jeffrey Kacirk was brought up in San Diego. He became fascinated by the dialog and ‘general antiquity’ of Shakespeare’s plays, which he saw performed at the nearby Old Globe Theater. In college he became, “intrigued with European and American social history, especially the languages, activities, and customs.”

He’s included these longtime interests in several books and calendars which you can find on his website, Forgotten English.

His book of the same name contains recipe terms such as dilligrout, and uzzle-pye. Mmm, they both sound frighteningly like descriptions of something I might serve up…

‘Clarke mocks May as catfight over human rights dogs the Tories,’ taunts today’s Guardian on page eight. While the headline on page 10 of the Independent states, ‘Fur flies between Clarke and May as cat tale starts immigration row’. And last night’s BBC news programmes purr-sued the story with similar glee (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Can’t you just imagine the Cheshire Cat sized grins on journalists’ faces as they opened their laptops after May’s speech?

She couldn’t have given them a better pet to play with. There are lots of purrfect cat-related terms to use in ameowsing headlines for this sorry tale. And so many of our words are prefixed with cat. I must confess I’ve sometimes played a little game to find how many words I can come up with that start with cat - sad but true. Here are some of the more obvious ones:

Catacombs
Catastrophe
Cataclysmic
Catatonic
Catapult
Caterpillar
Caterwaul
Category
Catalyst
Catalogue
Catabolic

And that’s just a few of the ones in which the prefix is pronounced ‘cat’ (well, ‘cata’ actually). But where does the prefix come from?

According to The Oxford Dictionaries website, its origin is Greek and it can mean:

• down ; downwards: catadromous
• wrongly; badly: catachresis
• completely: cataclysm
• against; alongside: catapult

In case you’re interested, or need some tips for your next game of Scrabble, here’s an extensive list from Scrabble Finder

I suppose I should thank the Home Secretary for inspiring this post. If only she  hadn’t looked like the cat who’d got the cream when she delivered that now infamous line, ‘and I’m not making this up’ …

I most certainly wouldn’t want to be in her speech writer’s shoes today!

There I was tootling along the M25 yesterday, on my way to Scotney Castle in Kent to meet a friend. It was a beautiful day and given the wet summer we’ve had, the glorious sunshine came as a welcome surprise. “Perhaps we’ll have an Indian Summer,” I said to myself. Then I started to wonder where the term comes from.

I’ve always associated it with unseasonably warm weather in autumn, but I didn’t realise that an Indian Summer is usually followed by period of colder weather.

According to The Phrase Finder and Wikipedia the term originated in America in the late 18^th century and reached the UK in the 1920s.

Previously in Europe the phenomenon was known as St Lukes Summer, All-Hallown Summer or Saint Martin’s Summer. The latter referred to St Martin’s Day on 11 November – the date it was supposed to end. It originated in France where it’s still used.

But why Indian? Well, apparently no-one knows but lots of people have speculated. Here are three of the theories listed by both * The Phrase Finder and Wikipedia – there are more extensive lists and more information on both sites if you’re interested:

• When European settlers first came across the phenomenon in America it became known as the Indian’s Summer.
• The haziness of the Indian Summer weather was caused by prairie fires deliberately set by Native American tribes.
• It was the period when First Nations/Native American peoples harvested their crops.

Whatever its meaning, it’s certainly nice to see blue skies and sunshine at the end of September!

And Scotney Castle is well worth a visit. The grounds looked stunning in the late summer sun yesterday – particularly the old medieval castle at the bottom of the valley which was left as a romantic ruin when the ‘new’ castle at the top of the hill will built in 1837. The National Trust, who owns Scotney, is renovating the old castle and it should be available for weddings next year. Aaah – how romantic!

Romantic medieval Scotney Castle

Photos copyright Elaine Swift

*As well as visiting the website, you can follow The Phrase Finder on Twitter @aphraseaweek

The Yvonne Arnaud's striking Macbeth poster

I went to see a production of Macbeth on Tuesday night by the Icarus Theatre Collective at The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

The staging was stark, dark and fabulous, and sitting there watching some excellent performances from the small cast of seven, I was reminded how much our language owes to Shakespeare.

OK. I know you Bard haters and detractors will disagree but so many of his phrases are still commonplace in our language almost four centuries after his death. 

Pound of flesh, from Merchant of Venice, is perhaps one of the most famous but during Macbeth last night I noted,  ‘milk of human kindness’, and even ‘knock, knock, who’s there’. I have to admit, the latter did sound strangely out of context!

And apparently, although he didn’t invent the word, the play also claims the first recorded use of the word ‘assassination’. I learned that from reading ‘1599 – A year in the Life of William Shakespeare’ by James Shapiro (published by Faber and Faber ISBN 0-571-21480-0).

Shapiro also says that over the course of Henry the Fifth, Shakespeare invented more than 20 new words. They include: impawn; womby vaultages (my favourite); nook-smitten (a close second); congreeted; enscheduled (sounds like modern-day management speak); and curselaire. I suppose it just goes to show that Will wasn’t always so successful at inventing resonating, century-spanning words.

Here are a couple more everyday phrases that came from Shakespeare’s quill:

All that glisters is not gold – Merchant of Venice

As luck would have it – The Merry Wives of Windsor

Green-eyed monster – Othello

You’ll find 133 more at The Phrase Finder

And why not find out your writing stacks up against Shakespeare’s by taking the ‘How Shakespearean are you?’ test on the OxfordWords blog. It’s great fun!

*By the the way, the first part of this post’s title – ‘household words’ – is borrowed from the Saint Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V.

What are your favourite Shakespeare phrases?

There’s a fabulous six-page spread in this month’s Coast magazine on Paddy and his partner and fellow artist, Helen Gillian. And there, in the background of one of the photos is the piece of work I bought from Paddy on our last visit!

The font is a record of the brushstroke script used by Dungeness fishermen to mark their equipment. The tradition is dying out because of modern labelling machines. Working on the font with graphic designer, Andrew Sullivan of Blacknight Design, Paddy intends to offer it online for locals to use.

Whatever we think of the reporting standards in our national newspapers, they have given us some great headlines over the years.

One of my personal favourites is The Sun’s “Super Cally go ballasitc, Celtic are atrocious” following Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s 3-1 win over Celtic in the Scottish Cup in 2000.

I spotted one of a slightly more sophisticated nature on the front page of The Guardian in April and have been meaning to write a post based on it ever since. It accompanied a front-page story by the paper’s Paris correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis. She was writing about the alleged outrage of notorious French riot police – the Compagnie Repulicaines de Securite (CRS) on hearing they would no longer be allowed to drink alcohol with their lunch.

Apparently, up until now, even packed lunches provided to the CRS out of riot vans while they were patrolling demos, came with a can of beer or glass of wine. And the headline?

“Riot squad sees rouge as police vin gets bottled.”

It’s tempting to think that good headlines are the result of a flash of inspiration (an old stalwart, by the way, when I was Head of Press and PR for Nikon UK and writing about the company’s flashlights – yes I know, I know). But the majority of strong, memorable, and more importantly, effective headlines take time and a great deal of hard work.

*Luke Sullivan is an award-winning advertising copywriter and his book, ‘Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This’,  is a must for anyone tasked with writing marketing material as well as advertisements. It’s both entertaining and instructive, and his chapter on writing headlines is very useful.

His advice is to write a hundred headlines for every one you need. Well, actually his first piece of advice is, “Get the puns out of your system right away.” Mmm so he’d love the ones I’ve chosen above then! But of course he’s talking about advertising headlines which need to sell a product or service.

To get started, his suggestion is to “methodically explore different attributes and benefits of your product as you write.”

So let’s say you’re writing a headline for a new range of cosmetics that contain only natural and organic ingredients, and aren’t tested on animals. You could use the following categories on which to base your headline:

• The product’s purity
• Kindness to skin and the environment
• Kindness to animals
• Science-based evidence headline
• Stylish good looks (package design)
• Value for money
• Nature based ideas

Write headlines under each category. Let the ideas flow and get scribbling. Don’t cross anything out at this stage, but when you’ve got your lists, go back through and mark your favourites. Leave them to marinade a while then work on them some more.

Like I said, it’s hard work and it’s a long process.

*You can follow Luke Sullivan on Twitter and read his blog at www.heywhipple.com

The works feature words made up from a new font Paddy is developing together with graphic designer friend, Andrew Sullivan of Blacknight Design The font will be called Dungeness and should be available later this year.I couldn’t resist ‘Fresh Bait’ which is now hanging in my office!

Visiting Paddy and Helen is always lovely: they’re so welcoming and generous with their time. It’s great seeing the new work that’s appeared since we were last there. And their two adorable Jack Russells – Fly and Jet are a bit of draw too!

Paddy and Helen opened the studios to the public in 2006 and there’s also an online gallery . The work is exhibited in two beautiful sheds which Paddy and Helen describe as “an extension of a continuing working practice which allow people to view the work in a clean, attractive and organised environment.”

The studios are open all year and are well worth a visit. There’s a great variety of work with a strong bond that pulls it all together. It’s very reasonably priced too making it possible to own an original piece of art from a talented artist. And if you don’t fancy a trip to Dungeness, you can always view the work online .

It would be a shame to miss out on a visit to Dungeness though. It’s like nowhere else I know. There’s a beauty in its strangeness from the quirky homes dotted in no particular order across the landscape, to the beach, one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world. It’s offered up some of the best beach-combing finds I’ve ever made – including a message in a bottle!

Incredibly, the ugly nuclear power station that dominates the landscape sits within a wildlife sanctuary deemed a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In fact, although it looks so hostile, Dungeness is home to a remarkable variety of wildlife. It has over 600 different types of plant – that’s a third of all those found in Britain. It’s also one of the best places in the country to find certain insects such as moths, bees, beetles, and spiders. Many of them are very rare and some are found nowhere else in Britain. The RSPB has a reserve there too.

One of the most famous Dungeness residents was film-maker and artist, Derek Jarman. The garden he created at Prospect Cottage is still looked after by his friends and attracts many visitors. And let’s not forget the lovely Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch 15” gauge steam railway complete with station and cafe. It’s easy to understand why the place is so inspiring for an artist.

Prospect Cottage © copyright Ron Strutt and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

“Dungeness attracts a great number of visitors many returning year after year,” says Paddy. “First-time visitors are often bowled over by the strangeness of the landscape, the open skies, and the unfamiliar desert-like appearance. “It’s a place you either immediately fall in love with or feel an immediate aversion to. I love it here because I was born and brought up in Africa and the beach here is very similar to the Kalahari desert at certain times of the year.”

I love it too and look forward to my next visit. This time I came back with a painting but who knows what treasures I’ll find on the beach!

Paddy and Helen’s brush garden. (Photograph © copyright Paddy Hamilton)

BBC Gardeners’s World clip ‘Gardening on The Edge’ featuring Paddy and the brush garden!

As always it was a mixed bag and there was lots to see but I was particularly drawn to three pieces of work that used words rather than images.

Two of them were by Tracy Emin (I’ll come back to them in a mo) and the other was by Miranda Argyle. I loved her piece which comprises the word ‘Heartbeat’ (its title) stitched in silk thread onto linen, over and over so that it fills the entire surface.

Take a look at the rest of Miranda’s stitched work and her current work.

Now back to Tracy Emin. Her monoprint, ‘Me too – Glad to Hear I’m a Happy Girl’ has the words ‘Glad your happy girl’ handwritten in the middle of an otherwise blank sheet of paper. Of course it left me wondering whether the grammatical error was intentional or not. I overhead two women, who I suspect were teachers, discussing it and suggesting she should go straight to the bottom of the class!

The use of words in works of art is nothing new. 1960’s Pop artists such as Andy Warhol used text in their work and British artist, Tom Philips has blended visual art with text from an early stage in his career.

In 1966 he set out to find a second-hand book for threepence and to create a new version of it by altering every page by painting, collage and cut-up techniques.  The new book, which he called ‘A Humument’ comprised 367 pages and was published in 1973.

Since then there have been three new editions and it now has it’s own website where you can view the fourth edition in its entirety

Phillips has brought it bang up to date with the The Humument App which is available from the App Store How cool is that?

Public artist and campaigner, Martin Firrall, certainly knows how to make a statement through textual art – maybe it’s because he originally trained as an advertising copywriter!

Firrall’s work has been projected onto St Paul’s Cathedral, the Royal Opera House and the National Gallery. His work ‘Complete Hero’ was projected onto the side of The Guards Chapel, Birdcage Walk, London in November 2009.

And in a moment of serendipity, I found this BBC online article from October 2009 on artists who have used text in their work: including Firrell.