Writers' know-how

virtual background

Zoom virtual background, by Terry Freedman

Zoom meeting backgrounds: a glimpse into the lives of others

May 01, 2020 in News & views, Photography, Technology

Is having a virtual background cheating in a sense? And is having a virtual background that looks like your own but isn’t really, cheating even more?

Latest Book Reviews

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Collection, Creative Writing, Bookshelf, Reviews

Compare and contrast: Picture Perfect

Collection, Creative Writing, Bookshelf, Reviews

As indicated by the title, the first thing to know about this anthology is that it comprises both poetry and prose, rather than one or the other. Many of the pieces are quite unusual...

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Collection, Creative Writing, Bookshelf, Reviews

Bookshelf, Reviews

Compare and contrast: Nuts and bolts

Bookshelf, Reviews

It's rather disconcerting when one considers that buildings like The Shard are essentially held together by nuts, bolts and washers.

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Bookshelf, Reviews

Bookshelf, Reviews

Compare and contrast: Love Triangle

Bookshelf, Reviews

Like, I suspect, many people, I have never knowingly come across an isosceles triangle in my life, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if I did. However...

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Bookshelf, Reviews

Bookshelf, Journalism, Language, Reference, Bad writing, Back Catalogue, Reviews

Review: Waterhouse on newspaper style

Bookshelf, Journalism, Language, Reference, Bad writing, Back Catalogue, Reviews

This book may be thirty years old, but its advice is still pertinent. If you want to have a blitz or crackdown against, or shake-up of, bad writing (all examples of 'tabloidese'), then this is the book for you.

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Bookshelf, Journalism, Language, Reference, Bad writing, Back Catalogue, Reviews

Can writers learn from computer programmers?

Bookshelf, Reflections

Can writers learn from computer programmers?

Bookshelf, Reflections

Introducing and applying Conway's Law, Gresham's Law and the sunken cost fallacy to the practice of writing.

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Bookshelf, Reflections

Bookshelf, Reviews

The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins

Bookshelf, Reviews

A fascinating glimpse into the mind and development of a true virtuoso.

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Bookshelf, Reviews

Geoffrey Chaucer's Complete Works: which edition do YOU prefer?

Bookshelf, Reflections

Geoffrey Chaucer's Complete Works: which edition do YOU prefer?

Bookshelf, Reflections

We visited the William Morris Gallery at the weekend, and Chaucer’s Complete Works was one of the books Wm Morris published.

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Bookshelf, Reflections

The art of writing originated from a very prosaic need, not a creative impulse

Back Catalogue, Bookshelf, Reviews

The art of writing originated from a very prosaic need, not a creative impulse

Back Catalogue, Bookshelf, Reviews

The art of making paper was kept secret for hundreds of years.

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Back Catalogue, Bookshelf, Reviews

Quick looks, Reviews, Bookshelf

Books I'm reading or about to read

Quick looks, Reviews, Bookshelf

I’ve been sent the following books by publishers, and will review them in due course. Here is some information about them.

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Quick looks, Reviews, Bookshelf

If you learnt how to write well at school, maybe you're lucky

Back Catalogue, Bookshelf, Reviews

If you learnt how to write well at school, maybe you're lucky

Back Catalogue, Bookshelf, Reviews

The typical school writing assignment involves working in a way that no real writer does.

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Back Catalogue, Bookshelf, Reviews