HARRY BLAMIRES

Writing is a skill that most of us acquire as we do speech. We pick it up as part of our development and rarely think about how we write and to what purpose. Yet bad or inaccurate writing can create as detrimental an impression as poor speaking skills. In this entertaining and illuminating book, Harry Blamires explains in ten clear chapters how to communicate effectively to your readers. Above all, thinking clearly about what you want to say before starting to write and holding firmly to it in the course of writing are crucial in producing clear and persuasive English. The text is packed with real examples of poor usage taken from all manner of sources from advertising to newspapers. Compose Yourself is an essential addition to the bookshelf of everyone who wants to write well for whatever audience.

Harry BlamiresSurveys the main periods, movements, figures, the achievements of British literature from Chaucer's time to the 1980s, emphasizing each writer's major work and the continuity of tradition within the genres.It is good to see a reprint and complete updating of this well-known historical tour de force, with its evidence of vast reading and literally thousands of useful facts.' - "Times Educational Supplement"