Philip Womack

Ha! Could have used this in my article on hyphens

Well said! I went to a talk recently which talked about writers becoming "the human in between two AIs". I very strongly objected.

At its heart, it feels like a symptom of an industry that has insisted on the idea of personal material as intellectual property; that a book is only its blurb, that it can only do one thing, that it can be reduced to KPIs, that there's no value in prose style, no value in the very act of writing.

This concept that an idea is all that matters – that writing is secondary, is an afterthought, is best outsourced to a machine – I can't get my head around it.

What do we think writing IS? What is an author? Why bother, if you don't want to write, if you are not challenged and exhausted and exhilarated and electrocuted in the doing of it?

Some of my editorial work comes via Reedsy. Over the past year it's become completely overrun by people (I can't call them authors) who are asking for editorial help on manuscripts that have been generated by #AI. Often, what they want is for someone to make the text sound more human.

Thank you!

Classics Teachers! If you'd like to book a creative writing workshop for your students, aged 8-13, based on Greek myth, and combine it with an author visit, then do get in touch! My book, #thearrowofapollo is newly republished by Wilton Square Books, and is a great introduction to myth.

Excellent stuff!

Philip Womack - Don’t Look Now Philip Womack: Don’t Look Now - Seven new books for younger readers

Here's my latest children's book round up for Literary Review, featuring Katya Balen, @emcarrollauthor.bsky.social @pennychrimes.bsky.social @pgbellwriter.bsky.social @mazevansauthor.bsky.social @curtisjobling.bsky.social @finbarhawkins.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/dont-look-no...

Elfking by Susan Price [Children's Books] Violence, Christianity and paganism

open.substack.com/pub/philipwo...

How the hyphen turned political When Buckingham Palace announced that its errant prince, Andrew, would be known as boring old Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, some surprise arose at the initial omission of the hyphen from his surname.…

Some hyphens surprise – have you looked recently at the title page of Moby-Dick?

✍️ Philip Womack
www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-...

Road sign for 'Skirmish Paintball'

How delightfully quaint some of these old Devon village names are, their etymologies lost in the mists of time.

On reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading [Essay] What does it mean to read a book?

open.substack.com/pub/philipwo...

I loved doing this interview for Mathew

Thomas Laqueur · A Different Life: Can cellos remember? Cellists and violinists in particular are haunted by the musicians who played their instruments before them and those...

‘Only in a very few cases has the journey back to sound that Kennedy writes about in relation to Hermann’s cello been possible. Most of these stories end in silence and rupture.’

Thomas Laqueur on Kate Kennedy’s ‘Cello’ and the instruments stolen by the Nazis: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Philip Womack - Beyond the Hundred Acre Wood Philip Womack: Beyond the Hundred Acre Wood - Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear: A Biography of A A Milne and Winnie-the-Pooh by Gyles Brandreth; The Men Who Created Winnie-the-Pooh: The Lives of A A Milne ...

My review of two books about Winnie-the-Pooh, A A Milne, and E H Shepard literaryreview.co.uk/beyond-the-h...

I very much enjoyed Chris Laoutaris' account of the making of the First Folio.

The Sterkarm Handshake by Susan Price [Children's books] A clash of cultures between elf and human

philipwomack.substack.com/p/the-sterka...

Shakespeare in Context: John Lowin The playwright's colleague

philipwomack.substack.com/p/shakespear...

I had a lovely message from someone who'd attended a talk which I gave at a school, in 2018. It's really true: school visits are so important. Authors, of all stripes: keep doing them! You never know what will hit home.

can't really begin to explain the extent to which I do Not want to be filmed without my knowledge by someone wearing smart glasses while out and about

The new Pullman has landed. THE ROSE FIELD, here we go...

Ovid's Tristia The fall of a poet

open.substack.com/pub/philipwo...

I never liked that story (supposedly Hemingway but prob not) since after all they could have just decided they didn't want the shoes.

open.substack.com/pub/philipwo...

Why do people feel sorry for me for going to boarding school aged nine? Sometimes, when I’m chatting about childhood, at some point it will become clear I went to a boarding school from the age of nine. Reactions can be comical. ‘You poor thing!’ an interlocutor might gas...

My piece on happy prep school days: www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...

On English Surnames Since I’m going to the launch of Eleanor Doughty’s history of the aristocracy, Heirs and Graces, tonight, I thought I’d dig up this old Tatler piece on surnames for subscribers.

A treat for subscribers over on my Substack: philipwomack.substack.com/p/on-english...

Shakespeare in Context: The Burbages A theatrical family

This week's Substack, on Richard Burbage open.substack.com/pub/philipwo...