My most recent Babel: The Language Magazine column looks at a fascinating recent book about women's words by Jenni Nuttall

I’ve seen some publishing cock-ups in my time, but this one’s jaw-dropping. (From 1981).

Gnome: a saying pertaining to the maners and common practises of men, which declareth, by an apte brevity, what in this our lyfe ought to be done, or not done.

(Peacham, Garden of Eloquence, 1577)

How ‘lore’, a largely neglected #medieval word, has found a new lease of life in pop-culture fandom.

✍️ Eleanor Parker explains in her latest Out of the Margins column

buff.ly/3EyRJN5

'Paths in the Snow', my book on Narnia is available for pre-order now (and out next month). It has been tremendous fun to write and research, and I really hope people enjoy it. I've written a bit about it here - shares much appreciated!
quiteirregular.wordpress.com/2023/09/12/pat…

This is lovely! (and if some enterprising organisation could reproduce this display in the form of a panel, I think we would have an excellent discussion)

‘I have boldfaced the alliterators’, says the author of the essay on Old English poetic style which I’m currently reading, sounding as heroic as his subject matter

Of course the new improved Bodleian Libraries library catalogue has decoupled all of the permalinks in my reading lists

Now available for pre-order! My new book on female hunters, unpaid First Ladies, homemaker fetishists, subsidized 'traditional' housewives & so much more about the untold history of housewives, and how the archetype shapes private lives and public policy. hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lisa-se…

A made-it-to-the-end-of-the-holidays treat for the Teenager and me tonight: seeing My Name is Alfred Hitchcock at a teeny-tiny cinema with sofas and fancy drinks

Oxford peeps: if I needed a quiet office with a wired connection to the uni network next Thursday evening at 9.30 pm for 30 mins, where could I go?

(I know the obvious answer would be my own employer, but if that's not an option - don't ask! - where else?)

In her book, MOTHER TONGUE, Oxford University medievalist Jenni Nuttall helps us understand how the evolution of the English language can reveal a lot about women's rebellion against patriarchal strictures.

damemagazine.com/2023/08/31/the…

Jenni Nuttall’s book Mother Tongue, the surprising history of women’s words, is a rich history of the words that we use to describe women and their lives and why these matter - workingmums.co.uk/summer-book-cl… Jenni Nuttall

Nice to have an excerpt up on Literary Hub, on some of English’s first menstrual words. In fact the first part of MOTHER TONGUE which I wrote, as the ideas (and its tone, and the way to go about it) were forming

(thus I’m very fond of it as it got me an agent and a deal PDQ)

I blogged about my new book, which is out in December: eeleach.blog/2023/08/29/dis…