• Patrick Ness, who wins the Children’s Book Award for The Ask and the Answer (Book Two of the Chaos Walking trilogy) which the judges acclaimed as “a major achievement in the making”

    I quite agree with the judge that the Chaos walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness is a major achievement in the making, I can’t wait for the next installment this autumn, but it is NOT a children’s book and should not be given an award as such.

    How many children will be given this book or pick it up themselves because it has won a children’s book prize and then be upset by the relentless grimness and explicit violence?

    Something has gone wrong with Children’s Book Prizes. Can crossover books be called exciting books for adults who like a proper, well-written story with a proper plot? Then can we have children’s books prizes for proper children’s books that are written for children again?

    Actually, I’m embarrassed that I used to recommend the first book, The knife of never knowing, to year fives and sixes – Id never have done that if I knew what was coming.

  • I sometimes lie in bed and stare out across the fields and golf course on the other side of the road. Somehow I’ve been either too busy or unable to get someone to come with me and walk around that view for eight years now.

    So today I walked up the hill to find my way round the footpaths that circle the comb-like top of the valley above Coleford to get the view from the other side. I’m so glad I did. There’s nothing like knowing what’s under your nose.

    The first half of the walk is across the golf course. I’ve never walked over one before. What lifeless, boring places they are! I’m sure Capability Brown could have made a beautiful golf course. The landscape is tortured into an unnatural shape that is all about function not beauty.

    The footpath back was squeezed in between two house fences, ugly or what? And intimidating. You have to be quite brave to go walking on your own! Public footpaths have been sacrosanct, so building boundaries are built right up to them. Interesting, in that you get to see into back gardens and see what other people do with theirs, but the downside is that the owners don’t really want you walking past them, so they make it an unpleasant experience. Barking dogs being only one of the hazards.

    I caught a glimpse of a fox running away at the start of the walk. I caught him later. I’m quite impressed with my camera – it can really get quite close up.

    More ice pictures too. Different to puddles as the stream is still running so it makes the edges all crinkly, like Norway!

  • Etiology is the study or attribution of where things have come from. Too much etiology can make you grumpy and start accusing people of using words incorrectly. The fact is the meanings of words change over time. In conversation, most people know what a word means because of the context and inflection.

    Lawyers need to know the exact meaning of a word in context. A bit of shrewd, applied etiology can entirely alter the wishes of the deceased!

    Learn a new word every day.
    Repeat it and remind yourself what it means at least three times in a day.
    Try to use the word in conversation or writing today.
    Get a dictionary and look words up.