From Al Desko to Zorbing

Pan Macmillan launched From Al Desko to Zorbing by Kerry Maxwell, author of the Macmillan English Dictionary ‘Word of the Week’ feature and regular contributor to MED Magazine and onestopenglish.com. A quirky, small-format gift book, From Al Desko to Zorbing provides an introduction to more than 200 of the latest additions to the ever-expanding English lexicon. Listings include such gems as denture venturer (the older adventure traveller), textual harassment (persistently insulting someone by text message) and blamestorming (using a meeting to discuss who is responsible when something has gone wrong).

Further afield . . .

Gwyneth Fox attended the 5th CAMELTA (Cameroon English Language and Literature Teachers’ Association) Conference in Yaounde, sponsored by Macmillan Education. She gave the keynote address – ‘The Attraction of Words’ – to open the conference, and two workshops on ‘Using Dictionaries to Improve Vocabulary Learning’. Macmillan again sponsored the Spelling Championship for non-native speakers of English, in Agadir, and the English-Speaking Union International Public Speaking Competition Final in London.