But language is one of the most democratic and rudderless of institutions. We write house whether we read it as hice or ha-ouse.A consistent regional patois with its own grammar is one thing; sloppiness another. Though an avid fan of Taggart, I do not want the national news to be in Glaswegian; any more than [...]

The Lonely Planet guide to India is amazingly in-depth and don’t be put off by references on the site’s title page about how basic the amenities can be on the subcontinent. The only thing that can jar slightly is the rather over-colourful prose in some of the regional sites (which you can access via this [...]

Plants that are growing happily also seem to transmit those feelings to us. And I’d always supposed I didn’t much care for cacti.In Washington, it was still too chilly to garden anywhere but under glass. In the huge conservatory of Brookside Gardens on the outskirts, I eyed up orchids that seemed quite ludicrously lavish compared [...]

Lisa’s mother Hena had saved her family from the Final Solution by lies and charm, by relying on her instinct and blonde beauty. It brought Quebec back to me like Proust’s madeleine – Esplanade Avenue, outside staircases, French kids with false teeth at 18 (from drinking Pepsi, Canada’s Coke: that’s why we called them pepsis, [...]