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“Speak into My Shell-Like Ear”
Language is full of curious expressions that charm us with their imagery, and one such phrase is “shell-like ear.” It’s a term often used with a touch of humor or endearment, typically when someone invites another to share a secret or say something softly. “Whisper that into my shell-like ear.” But where does this odd-sounding phrase come from? And why a shell?

What Does “Shell-Like Ear” Mean?
At its core, the phrase “shell-like ear” is a poetic or whimsical way to...

I know, it sounds a bit of a bizarre statement, How to Read a Book, but there is a published book named as such, by an American philosopher, Mortimer J. Adler. It was published in 1940, and a revised edition published in 1972, co-authored by Adler along with writer and editor Charles Van Doren. Van Doren's name may be familiar to some. Van Doren was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. He later testified before the US Congress that he had been given the correct answers by...

It was only last year, in May 2024, that I wrote and published Walking Away from Midnight. And then came up with the brilliant (crazy) idea for a series of nine books based on my WW2 SOE (Special Operations Executive) heroine, Jessie Fordham, known as agent Midnight. Just over a year later, and I've just published book three in The Midnight Series, Midnight's Secret.

I'm getting good reviews for all three published books, which means I have to keep up the quality of the stories and writing in...

In 1590, early modern English was less than 100 years old. It just so happens that at the time, one William Shakespeare was writing his sonnets and plays in English. But there were no dictionaries he could use to look up a word, so instead, he made up his own words.

At the time virtually all written documents were written in Latin. But because Shakespeare wrote in English, words he invented were included in his plays, and luckily not lost to us. His contribution of a whopping 1,700 words to...