The Writing Guy

777 years ago today, at the foot of a small mountain called Montségur in the French Pyrenees, 210 cathar heretics voluntarily burnt to death rather than recant their religious beliefs.

George Orwell, of '1984' fame, urged us all to use language to preserve our freedoms, which are now under threat from the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill going to Parliament today

A delightful ditty by Robert Louis Stevenson on this special day

Abstract language makes the reader work harder to get your meaning. Scott shows how to cure this ailment.

We need to enlist the aid of what we find easiest to do - speech - to help us with what we find hardest - writing.

The title alone of this poem captures my wobbly uncertainty about life as we await news of the fate of local girl Sarah Everard, who was abducted close to where I live. I pray for her safe return.

Scott unpicks the 61-word statement issued by the Palace in response to Meghan's allegations in the Oprah Winfrey interview

Scott has some fun with terrible tautologies, another of Windy's ailments

Good ideas should stand on their own. They don't need dressing or tarting up. If you find yourself being wordy, challenge the quality of your content first!

Thanks to his beans-only diet, Windy suffers from literary flatulence. But you don't have to. The cure is simple.