Down to a T

There are normally three problems with reviews of books which, like This is the Way by Gavin Corbett (Fourth Estate, £14.99), concern the Traveller community. The first is that while most people have only just got used to the fact that Traveller now has a capital ‘T’, the reviews must avoid those other words you’re not supposed to have in your head any more, though everyone does. Yes, even Guardian journalists and BBC editors; I once heard one of the latter breed say, after everyone had discussed a radio drama about Travellers using the ‘correct’ terminology: ‘Oh, you mean the pikey play?’

The second problem is that the reviews feel obliged to use phrases such as ‘troubling, mysterious’, ‘visceral imagination’ and ‘the man is an original, with a bridge to the world of first things he’s fashioned for himself’ (all appear on the back cover of this book).

Fair enough, perhaps — you need to signal to potential readers that if their normal author of choice is Dan Brown, this probably isn’t the novel for them.