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The Times leader writer and columnist Oliver Kamm takes on the pedants with a witty and provocative look at the use and abuse of the English language. Kamm demonstrates that many of the rules of style – from splitting infinitives to dangling prepositions – are no more than folklore with a dash of prejudice. The ‘good grammar’ that was taught in the 1960s should not be brought back, says Kamm, and, for that matter, it is perfectly OK to split your infinitives in the right context.

Kamm says he is a reformed pedant. He is the newspaper’s unofficial expert on language and style, a subject he tackles each week in his long-running column, The Pedant.