MISCELLANY
THE WORLD OF
WRITING
6 APRIL 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.uk
The wide world of writing is a curious place where fonts get fan mail, Poet
Laureates play pub gigs and bookshop burglars get boozed upThe forces of the law had no
problems catching burglars
intent on stealing from Gay’s
the Word bookshop in London
in February, because the would-
be thieves had uncovered a
stash of booze and drunk it.
When the police arrived the
intruders were found in the
Soho bookshop polishing off a bottle of prosecco,
having already finished the leftover tequila from a
staff member’s birthday. ‘They seem to have been
boozing mid-burglary, which probably wasn’t the
most prudent thing to do,’ bookseller Uli Lenart
told Pink News. ‘Shop in a bit of a mess,’ tweeted
Gay’s the Word on 9 February. ‘Getting ready to
clear up. We may open later today – depends on police. At least it’s not a
hate crime.’
Independent bookshop Gay’s the Word, which featured in the
2014 film Pride as the HQ of 1980s activist group Lesbians and
Gays Support the Miners, has repeatedly been targetted for attack
since it was founded in 1979.Gay’s the Word CC BY-SA 3.0 Ross Burgess; prosecco CC BY-SA 3.0 AgneFonts have fan clubs
Ask any designer what they
think about Comic Sans and
they’ll look at you as if you’d
thrown up on their artfully
arranged desk. But beyond
the elevated aesthetics
of design professionals,
whoever expected fonts to
trend on Twitter? When
author Sean Richardson (@
Southlndtabby) tweeted
‘Please reveal the deepest part of yourself: Which font
and which size do you write in?’ on 26 January, fonts
went viral, with the Twittersphere awash with writers
proclaiming their favourites. Times New Roman came
out as top of the font pops. The serif typeface was
commissioned by The Times in 1931 and designed by
Stanley Morrison and Victor Lardent of Monotype. The
Times stopped using Times New Roman in 1972. Despite
a dignified and illustrious history that includes being the
font used for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Twitter user @
MaryAnne summed up its appeal by saying ‘It’s all about
that adorable lower case f ’. Though to be fair, no-one’s ever
going to say that about Comic Sans.Plastered
Ask any designer what they pilferers
think about Comic Sans and
they’ll look at you as if you’d
thrown up on their artfully
arranged desk. But beyond
the elevated aesthetics
of design professionals,
whoever expected fonts to
trend on Twitter? When
author Sean Richardson (‘Please reveal the deepest part of yourself: Which fontThe forces of the law had no
problems catching burglars
intent on stealing from Gay’s
the Word bookshop in London
in February, because the would-
be thieves had uncovered a
stash of booze and drunk it.
When the police arrived the
intruders were found in the
Soho bookshop polishing off a bottle of prosecco,
having already finished the leftover tequila from a
staff member’s birthday. ‘They seem to have been
boozing mid-burglary, which probably wasn’t the
most prudent thing to do,’ bookseller Uli Lenart
told
Gay’s the Word on 9 February. ‘Getting ready to