Articles from the author

The British foreign secretary’s latest headline-grabbing idea to connect the UK with France is not a serious proposal

Technology has enabled JFK to ‘deliver’ his final speech 55 years later, but it could soon be impossible to trust what we see or hear

Although the ‘Trump doctrine’ is being copied around the world, it has a possible expiry date: The US midterms in November

BBC Radio 4 listeners (and John Humphrys) are fuming over an ‘unwelcome linguistic epidemic’. In fact, it goes back as far as Beowulf

With a climate-change sceptic in the White House, marchers worldwide spread a message of hope that protest and science can save the world

Trump’s late-night typo has the potential to change the English language, but it’s doubtful as to how big will the word that no one can pronounce get

‘Earth-shatteringly good’ pizzas may not live up to their billing, but, linguistically, we’ll never escape the cycle of exaggeration

The prospect of an atomic accident alone justifies ridding the world of these weapons

Changes in the way we speak are not necessarily as simple as changing clothes

Though my dad spoke Farsi, I didn’t learn it at home — but this 
didn’t stop me from exploring

The ‘recency illusion’ makes us believe words and phrases we have just noticed in usage are actually new. But this is not always the case