Here at Orchard PR we love words. We love writing them, saying them and discussing which ones work best in each other’s clients’ blogs, articles and news releases.
Personally, getting to discuss words in all their glory is my favourite part of my job and there are plenty of other word aficionados at Orchard Towers; a love of language is clearly a handy thing to have if you want to work in PR.
Tracing the origins of that love is not difficult for many people and much of it starts with one man: Roald Dahl.
Today marks Roald Dahl Day, the day that the author would have turned 100 years old, and what better way to mark it with a celebration of his work and, of course, his words.
There’s certainly a divide in the office between those who’ve read Dahl’s work when they were young and those who’ve read them to their own children (some have of course done both).
Steve has fond memories of falling asleep while reading the stories to his boys when they were young, which wasn’t exactly the idea of a bedtime story they had in mind but a hard day’s work in PR will do that to you.
The Witches was Lois’s favourite as it appealed to her boys’ desire to be scared by stories as well as hearing the gross details that Dahl described so vividly.
Along similar lines, my favourite was always The Twits, I loved the lurid details of Mr Twit’s beard and how he could always find a morsel of food in there somewhere; disgusting but delightful.
Much of the joy of the stories is derived from hearing them read aloud, and Chris recommends checking out comedian Richard Ayoade’s reading of The Twits for an example of all those fantastic phrases delivered brilliantly.
But apparently it isn’t just little boys who like rude things as Emma loves Dahl’s invented phrase ‘whizzpopping’ – meaning to break wind; something for everyone then.
The whole team has powerful memories of Dahl’s work and Brooke is beginning to resample the delights of his enthralling tales as she begins reading the stories to her sons. She can’t wait to read them her favourite – The Minpins – which she herself received as a birthday present from her great aunt.
A true wordsmith, inventor and lexical innovator; Dahl’s invention the BFG once issued the instruction “don’t gobblefunk around with words,” but where’s the fun in that? Whether you find Dahl’s words propsposterous, rotsome, catasterous or scrumdiddlyumptious there’s plenty of fun to be had with them.
Now how to work those into a news release…
Happy Roald Dahl Day!