This week it's about the birthday boy, as we celebrate all things Gyles Brandreth. 

Not only does Gyles spoil us with a plethora of his famous anecdotes, but he becomes the linguistics quizmaster and places Susie in the hot seat to answer questions from his book 'Have You Eaten Grandma'.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GYLES! You are truly one of a kind.

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Enjoy Susie’s Trio for the week: 

Galere: A coterie of undesirable people.

Chawbacon: One uninterested in culture.

Boulevardier: A lover of boulevards.

Gyles' poem this week was the incredibly emotive 'Counting Backwards' by Linda Pastan.

How did I get so old,

I wonder,

contemplating

my 67th birthday.

Dyslexia smiles:

I’m 76 in fact.

There are places

where at 60 they start

counting backwards;

in Japan

they start again

from one.

But the numbers

hardly matter.

It’s the physics

of acceleration I mind,

the way time speeds up

as if it hasn’t guessed

the destination—

where look!

I see my mother

and father bearing a cake,

waiting for me

at the starting line.

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