Prompted by a yearning for a chip shop chip, this is the podcast that dares to  look at the language that comes with a steamy portion o' chips. Laden with tasty bits, served with salty etymology  and vinegary comments.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

Wrangling the word 'bloody' in all its slightly passé glory. This is a very theatrical tale, with Shakespeare, Wilde, Shaw and Orton all playing themselves, and some name-drop actors  appearing in cameo roles.

And if you have ever been told that 'bloody' is a blasphemy... Well, have a listen to find out just how bad it is.

This episode was recorded at the end of 2020 but what with bloody covid and one bloody thing after another it's bloody well here now.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

In this episode of Word Wrangling my sights are set on those cocky champions of language use: comedians, the vocabulary of their work and, possibly, we’ll see how it goes, how some screwed up jokes throw light and shade on our hidden selves. This one is for the comics, 

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

Press commentators are concerned with what’s behind the headlines – fair enough: it’s a dirty job and someone has to do it but that’s not my gig.  It’s not the Word Wrangling way. 

While higher brows may dissect the value of what the linens say, my eyes are aiming higher still. Looking above the headlines, the banners, kickers and shoulders; straplines, decks and blurbs. In this episode I am looking at the newspaper titles themselves. 

This is word wrangling the linen drapers.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

We tend to take the vocabulary of boots and shoes for granted but there's a lot going on down there in the footwear department. From flip-flops to thigh-highs, and Docs to Crocs. You are invited to join me on this idiosyncratic meander through some of the boots'n'shoes that made our language what it is.

This edition of Word Wrangling has a NO TRAINERS policy.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

The English language is an adorable old dog that has sired a litter of lovable mongrel bastards. An original Anglo-Saxon pedigree – with more than a touch of Celtic – crossed with Latin, Greek, Old Norse, and Norman, by-blowed with souvenir stains from our colonial, imperial, mercantile, war-mongering, Internet heritage. Honestly, there’s no other language like it… and you would not believe how many Englishes there are.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

A short sharp word wrangle.

When some people say 'of' instead of 'have', some other people get very upset.

To of  or to have? That is the question. Whether tis nobler… is a matter of personal choice. Either may serve. To be honest, in the limited context of this petty controversy, of and have are pretty much the same thing.

Because of  for have is not an error of grammar.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

The English language, as it stands, is the sum of all parts, commercial, political and military; of unwelcomed invasive tongues and, subsequently, of Britain’s imperial adventuring. The English garden of language has always transplanted and cultivated words wherever it finds them. You might think it odd, given the shared histories of Wales and England, that only a few Welsh words are found in the general English lexicon...

Those few words are here, and that includes some fascinating possibilities. As for why there are so few Welsh words in English you'll have to dive in and have a listen.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

Bum bum bum bum....

Presenting and wrangling  the bumper bundle of delightful and bumfuzzling discoveries that I made when digging into the word bum. 

Enjoy.

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.

There are many words in the dictionary that you may not like. In particular, it seems the words or definitions of 'woman' and her cognates can rub some people up the wrong way... 

Word Wrangling is an independent production. We are always on the lookout for new ways with words. If you have any thoughts please get in touch.