An offer from Cyan books
Cyan Books are offering a 40% discount to members of 26 (plus free postage and packing inside the UK), on the following titles :
‘A Whole New Mind’ by Daniel H. Pink (normal price £12.99, discounted to £7.79)The era of ‘left brain’ dominance is over. This book explores the artistic and holistic ‘right brain’ abilities you’ll need to flourish in the conceptual age. ‘A Whole New Mind’ is currently garnering widespread praise in the design, creative and communications communities.
‘We, Me, Them & It’, ‘The Invisible Grail’ and ‘Dark Angels’, all by John Simmons (normal price £9.99 each, discounted to £5.99 each)John Simmons looks at ways of writing more effectively and creatively at work, and also how language can create and build strong brands. These three books will be available at John’s talk at Elmwood. But for those who can’t make it, here’s your chance to buy them direct from Cyan at a discounted price.
‘See, Feel, Think, Do: The Power Of Instinct In Business’ by Andy Milligan and Shaun Smith (normal price £12.99, discounted to £7.79)A new book co-written by 26 member Andy Milligan. For anyone who wants to understand the experiential world of their customers, and how this can inform innovation, design and marketing.
Please email
sales@cyanbooks.com to order any of these titles.
www.26.org.uk
Together with our friends at the ever-supportive
Elmwood Design, we’ve been looking at ways to develop the 26 web site into something much bigger, better and bolder. Our plans include automating membership and renewals; reserving or buying tickets for events online; and giving each member their own page to do with what they will.
We’ve also mooted the possibility of a 26 merchandise section, where we might sell limited-edition 26 T-shirts, postcards, tea cosies and the like. So here’s a call you designers out there… if you want to develop a range of must-have, collectible 26 goodies, get in touch with us via newsletter@26.org.uk.
More broadly, if you feel there’s something that really should be up there on the web site, do let us know before it’s too late. The new, improved site should be up and running in the Spring. We’ll keep you informed.
The 26 ‘Golden Keyboard’ Awards
A commercial writing awards scheme is an idea several members have mooted. The question is, how do we go about organising it in a manageable and typically 26 way?
At our big annual pow-wow earlier in the month, we decided that we’d ask you, dear 26-ers, to put forward any nominations you may have. That could be something you’ve written yourself, that’s popped through your letterbox, fallen out of a magazine, that you’ve seen in a shop, on a poster or a web site.
When our own bigger, better, all-conquering web site is up and running later in the year, we’ll post your nominations in cyberspace for due consideration. Then we’ll either assemble a panel of experts to pick the winners, or we’ll put it to a more democratic vote.
Finally, we’ll have a party to celebrate.
So if you see a piece of commercial writing that tickles your fancy, file it away in a box marked ‘excellent’ and be prepared to share it with us at a later date.
In our humble...
The first in an occasional series where we canvass members of 26 for their views on the ‘burning’ issues of the day. For January:
There have been several books published recently railing against the evils of jargon and management speak. Do you think there’s less of it in business writing now, or are things just as bad as ever?
Rishi DastidarManagement speak is like a particularly nasty STI: despite effective remedies, it is always there even when you think you are clear, and can flare up again at the slightest provocation. Practitioners in the field should remind their patients that as well as a detrimental effect on those who come into contact with such words, their use has an impact closer to home – readers are likely to sense a poverty of thought, ill intentions behind obfuscatory language, and a general lack of humaneness. Prescriptions should always include a willingness to return email/memo/brief/report to transmitter of said jargon with a health warning attached; or a transfusion of simplicity, clarity and creativity.
......................................Richard Owsley, WritersNothing seems to be able to stem the loathsome torrent of driving, delivering and leveraging on value propositions and core competencies.
I used to think this was good news for my mortgage payments – so long as this nonsense proliferated, there would always be a need for translators (even if arriving at a meaningful rendition wasn’t always easy). And with English as the universal language of business, the world was my oyster.
But now I’m beginning to fear this globalisation. The more I work for multinational corporations, the more I realise that they learn not standard English, but its bastard spawn. When my children reach working age they will need only three languages – Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, and Management Claptrap.
......................................
Anelia Schutte, The WriterThere’s no doubt that management speak is still rife. The difference now is that it’s finally being recognised – and publicly ridiculed – for the fact-shrouding hogwash that it really is. Why would any self-respecting manager want to sound like David Brent? Or be the brunt of a Boardroom Bingo game?
On BBC2’s ‘Balderdash And Piffle’ [see ‘26 Members Recommend’], Ian Hislop blamed the spread of management speak on the rise of management consultancies. But even the management consultancies are now becoming self-conscious about their jargon-riddled drivel. Just in the past year, The Writer has helped three such consultancies to exorcise their ‘paradigm shifts’ and ‘optimum work/life balances’.
It’s like smoking. Some people might never quit the management-speaking habit. But it’s becoming increasingly anti-social.
Send Definitive Greetings
26 member Mike Reed has written and designed a range of greetings cards around obscure words from the depths of the OED. The range, ‘Definitive Greetings’, is now on sale in bookshops and galleries across the land, and was featured in last month’s
Arena magazine.
The cards began life as a new business mailer for
Mike’s freelance business – he sent all his prospects a ‘free introductory word’. But the printers, Polite, immediately saw the potential for expanding their range of greetings cards – which also includes sets by artist David Shrigley and photographer Sebastian Hamel.
There are 12 Definitive Greetings in all, each bearing a ‘suggested usage’ for the word (“Don’t bother Daddy, Evangeline, you know how tonitruous he gets when he’s doing DIY,” or “I’ve just been listening to more of Ulrich’s insufferable fanfaronade”) and a little etymological ramble. You can find a list of stockists – or buy online – at
www.politecards.com
Our next event
‘Paul Burke – On Your Radio’
When: 21 February 2006, 6.30pm
Where: October Gallery, 24 Gloucester Street, London WC1
Nearest tube: Holborn
The lovely Paul Burke, copywriter and novelist, will be our VIP guest speaker in February. Paul came to a very early 26 event, but his audio wouldn’t aud, so he promised to come back later. Now he’s got his sounds in working order, we are delighted to have him back.
Paul specialises in writing radio commercials and will share his collection of good and bad use of words on radio with 26ers. He will also tell us what it’s like to combine commercial copywriting with the life of a successful novelist.
Those present at Paul’s first 26 outing will recall that despite the technical problems, he fascinated us with tales of working with voice-over artists including Stephen Fry – and falling out with his wife after spending his holidays writing novels (‘Father Frank’, ‘Untorn Tickets’, ‘The Man Who Fell In Love With His Wife’).
The October Gallery is just north of Holborn in WC1. That’s just one station east of Tottenham Court Road and Covent Garden. Please don’t be scared; there are some West-enders who seem to think it’s bordering Hackney; it’s only walking distance from the Ivy.
Book early. Get in touch with Julie at twiggy.peasticks@virgin.net.
26 members recommend for January
26 is now an official Amazon affiliate. That means if you order a recommended book or CD by following the links to Amazon, 10% of what you pay will end up in 26’s coffers, helping us to put on more events and recommend more books. A virtuous circle, if you like.
......................................‘Found’ magazineI collect odd scraps of letters washed into the gutter, strange lost Post-It notes, peculiar posters for country fayres, notices in public places, and all sorts of other hand-written or badly printed electica. I thought I was odd. Then I discovered (or should that be found) ‘Found’ Magazine. Now I think I’m odd but not alone.
www.foundmagazine.com.
TR
......................................‘Consider The Lobster And Other Essays’ by David Foster Wallace (Abacus £10.99 or £7.79 on Amazon)In which America’s pre-eminent post-modern stylist, genius grant recipient, and user of words such as ‘snootlet’, takes on diverse subjects such as the class structure to be found in the US porn industry, Senator John McCain, and why he might be the saviour of US politics, whether or not lobsters feel pain when they’re boiled alive, what’s wrong with John Updike, what’s right with Kafka and why you really ought be concerned about the words you use, while deploying rhetorical tricks such as page-long footnotes, in-text interpolations and 100-word sentences, and being laugh-out loud funny all at the same time.
RD
......................................‘On the Sea I Spied Him – 21 Pre-metaphysical Poems’ by Andrew Tait (Global Ghostwriters, £4.99)Newcastle poet Andrew Tait went to great lengths to try and attract a publisher for his first volume of poetry – a stint on top of the Tyne Bridge ended only when the police forcibly airlifted him off. And by extraordinary coincidence, the publisher of this second volume just happens to live at his address. Despite his apparent lack of success, Andrew has a surprising number of celebrity admirers – including Sting, Stephen Fry, Andrew Motion and Ivor Cutler. Sir Tim Rice described him as “clearly highly original, if not barking” and his poetry is touching and funny, and well worth a read. Find out for yourself. Order a copy of ‘On The Sea I Spied Him’ by sending a cheque for £4.99 to Global Ghostwriters, PO Box 1041, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE99 2TY.
LH......................................‘The Jean Vigo Collection’ (Artificial Eye, £29.99 from Amazon)This collection features the brilliant ‘Zero de Conduite’, a 40-minute film from 1933 that has anarchic schoolboys and teachers running amok in a boarding school. Very silly, surreal and French in a pre-Jacques Tati kind of way. You also get the classic ‘L’Atalante’, where a honeymoon on a barge lurches from romance to high drama, and ‘A Propos de Nice’, a silent montage that captures the rich and poor of the South of France as they prepare for the carnival.
FT
......................................‘Rip It Up And Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984’ by Simon Reynolds (Faber & Faber, list £16.99, or £11.89 on Amazon)Wonderfully detailed description of a wonderful period and a much needed boost for a neglected age of musical creativity. Essential reading for music fans of a certain age.
RH
......................................‘The Year Of Magical Thinking’ by Joan Didion (4th Estate, £12.99 or £9.09 on Amazon)In December 2003, Joan Didion’s daughter was submitted to intensive care suffering from pneumonia and septic shock. Five days later her husband of 39 years died. ‘The Year Of Magical Thinking’ is an account of what followed. In her customary prose – cool, clear-eyed, collected – she details how she felt anything but. To the outside world she remained calm and rational; her interior world was a vortex of memories to be grasped at, in the hope that everything would be OK, that he would be brought back. A meditation on grief and mourning, it is also a finely-wrought portrait of a marriage that worked like clockwork. Until the moment it ended. Its power is such that you don’t even notice the tears rolling down your cheek.
RD
......................................‘Jarhead: A Soldier’s Story of Modern War’ by Anthony Swofford (Scribner, £6.99 list, or £5.59 on Amazon)This is a personal account of the Gulf War which has been around for a while, but Sam Mendes’s film adaptation has just come out. Swofford passed the final hours before the start of the Gulf War sheltering under a truck reading the ‘Iliad’. After the fighting stopped, he turned to writing to help rebuild his life. In ‘Jarhead’, he describes how language was used to desensitise recruits at boot camp. Marines had to refer to themselves in the third person; everyday vocabulary was replaced with corps slang. Stripped of a personal identity beyond the corps, many young marines found it hard to make sense of their lives or readjust to civilian life. It’s a challenging book, but the writing’s good.
MB
......................................‘Balderdash And Piffle’ (BBC2, Mondays 9pm)Not so much a recommendation as an observation. It says a lot for the popular interest in words that the BBC is prepared to devote a precious primetime slot to light-hearted etymological investigation. But the tone of ‘Balderdash And Piffle’ is over-jolly, its format too like a corny make-over programme, as presenter Victoria Coren zips up and down the country in her yellow Mini searching for linguistic evidence to present to the editors of the OED. The words and phrases under scrutiny say it all really – ‘bonk’, ‘something for the weekend’, ‘phoar’, ‘minger’. And one of the guest presenters is the gaudy-shirted friend to the tax man Adam Hart-Davis, which is quite enough to put anyone off.
JD......................................‘Labyrinths’ by Jorge Luis Borges (Penguin Modern Classics, £8.99 list or £7.19 on Amazon)The classic collection of short fictions, including ‘The Library Of Babel’,from a master of intrigue and philosophical mischief. Feel your imagination whirl as he takes you down strange paths of thinking, then leads you to question everything you’ve just thought. A very entertaining way to try to make sense of writing, reading and the universe.
TR
......................................‘Count Arthur Strong’s Radio Show!’ BBC Radio FourSpoof reminiscences of a former variety star, says the Beeb’s blurb, but don’t let that put you off. This is great new comedy in the spirit of the Goons, with a twist of Izzard. More details and repeated shows at
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/countarthurstrong.
TR......................................‘Grooming, Gossip And The Evolution Of Language’ by Robin Dunbar (Faber & Faber, £7.99 list, or £6.39 on Amazon)An incredibly readable account of just why we humans bothered to evolve language. Basic thesis: it’s to enable us to gossip (in the broadest sense), an activity that takes the place of the nit-picking grooming our ape cousins use to reinforce group bonds. We don’t groom, we chat, and that’s what keeps society going. Along the way it touches on psychology, linguistics, anthropology and all sorts of other -ologies and -istics. It ain’t heavy, it’s dead interesting.
RH
......................................‘Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close’ by Jonathan Safran Foer (Hamish Hamilton, £14.99 list or £10.49 on Amazon)This is Foer’s second novel, following ‘Everything is Illuminated’, which has already been adapted into a movie starring everyone’s favourite Hobbit, Elijah Wood. It’s the story of Oskar Schell, an eccentric nine-year-old (inventor, amateur entymologist, computer consultant, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, amateur astronomer, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, origamist, detective and collector of butterflies) whose father has been killed in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The book follows Oskar as he tries to make sense of father’s death, a mysterious key, and all manner of questions arcane and philosophical. As well as the breathtaking writing, Foer has interwoven intriguing ‘found’ images into the text, which won him the prestigious 2005 V&A illustration award.
JD
......................................‘A Novel In A Year’ in the Arts & Books section of the Saturday Telegraph
Hilarious. Cashing in on a thousand New Year’s resolutions, ‘acclaimed novelist’ Louise Doughty doles out by-numbers advice for wannabe Louise Doughtys (or should that be Doughties?). She’s full of pearls like “To not-read when you are writing is as odd as refusing to listen to any French when you are trying to write it”, or “If Dostoevsky were writing today, then he wouldn’t be Dostoevsky”. If she keeps this up for an entire year, I really will be impressed.
JD
......................................‘The Order Of Things’ by Barbara Ann Kipfer (Random House USA, £10.88 list or £9.97 on Amazon)Ever wondered in what order the 64 Emperors of Byzantium ruled? Or the ranks in the British army? Or how a television dish works? Or the different layers of soil? Or the names of different coal sizes? Of course you have. This uber-reference book tells all. Endlessly interesting in a ‘Scott’s Miscillany’ type way.
RH
......................................This month’s plugs by Jim Davies, Rishi Dastidar, Roger Horberry, Tim Rich, Matthew Blackbourn, Lu Hersey and Fiona Thompson. These are not necessarily the views of 26, but we hope they’re not far off the mark. Any contributions gratefully received.
