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Dear friends Some of you may not already know that I’ve been undergoing a series of tests and scans over the last couple of months. The upshot is that I have (peritoneal) cancer and will be going through some treatment in the weeks and months to come, hopefully with a reasonably good outcome after allContinue reading “Personal news”

I’m delighted that, after a few delays, Dan and I have finally seen the publication of the second edition of Stylistics (C.U.P. 2025). We are very pleased to have improved on the first edition in a number of ways, most notably in wider/deeper coverage of more recent developments in the field and in the additionContinue reading “New edition!”

I am delighted to announce that Lancaster University has appointed me as Honorary Professor in Linguistics and English Language! After the somewhat dismal end to a long career at another university, this feels good and I am looking forward to working on projects with colleagues at Lancaster. Watch this space.

I’m at that stage in life where my time is divided between work projects, retirement activities and grandparenting. The latter has taken up a lot of my time in the last few weeks, so this post is inevitably inspired by that preoccupation. Last week, the night before her third birthday, I was putting my granddaughterContinue reading “Life stages!”

This is going to be a very short blog to mark my retirement from The University of Huddersfield (on 6th October 2022) after 33 years of employment. It hasn’t been a happy end to my ‘career’ as the university decided to close down our courses and make my colleagues redundant in June, leaving me withContinue reading “Linguistics”

This blog will contain occasional short posts, which may be political, topical, self-promoting (rarely) or simply something I thought about on my morning run. All of them will be about language. Until now… and I’m using the website for my personal challenges during cancer treatment! I will also comment on the language I encounter inContinue reading “Preoccupations in linguistics and other issues”