Yes, my first ever GOLD Ippy award!!!! (European fiction). AND a finalist in Foreword Indies' annual awards!!... Having said which, it's been a rough period for me personally - no question - which is why this monthly posting is about ten days late.😥

First, my husband’s had two, separate, health issues, so relieved to report that his getting back on the tennis courts can be a mere fortnight away… While we – thanks to the wonderful UKHousesitters.com (cannot recommend them highly enough as house/dog-sitters!!!) – are, belatedly, finally back in Crete, our happy place.

So it’s a case of B-R-E-A-T-H-E, as Heather, the energy healer to whom I dedicated Harriet, always says…In the meantime, all my best to all of you, and hoping you have a wonderful June and a refreshing summer, wherever it might take you!

And, if it so, do we care? The Guardian newspaper was this week sounding its death-knell. In brief, usage in the UK has plummeted. (“Its usage in English books plummeting by almost half in two decades – from one appearing in every 205 words in 2000 to one use in every 390 words today… 67% of British students never or rarely use the semicolon.”) Figures in the US might be lower still.

Of course, semi-colons are mostly used, either for joining two full sentences together, for flow, or for separating clauses already comma-ed (and yes, I do know comma-ed is not a word, but if P.G. Wodehouse can make up words, well hey, so can I!) My husband’s seriously academic book, Music in Edwardian London – whose editor was (coughs) me – is absolutely crammed with them. Though I’m not saying we didn’t fight over a few. However, that’s an important academic tome, where even colons abound, and not a word of fiction in it. In these days of illiteracy, predictive text, and general lack of interest in formal writing, the semi-colon – adored by Jane Austen – is still probably going the way of the stegosaurus.

Now I’ve thought long and hard about this, and – like the Oxford comma – I don’t think it actually adds anything. Nor is the absence of semi-colons likely to annoy novel-readers.  As, for some, the super-modern method of writing dialogue without using quotation marks annoys, as seen in major prize-winners such as Cormac McCarthy. Here is an example of this punctuation, featuring a brief dialogue between myself and my mother.

 - I don’t think much of the Oxford comma.

 - Wash your mouth out with soap.

I certainly can’t see JAFF writers relinquishing quotation marks! But, returning to my point (and yes, a semi-colon does have one) it’s pretty undeniable that (a) the em-dash is truly where the action is in 2025 and (b) a few Austen-loving readers might do a double-take were they to sight a semi-colon in the wild. It's even possible, should a curious reader crack open the first few pages of a novel, that a single semi-colon, to which they had never been properly introduced, might tip the scales against a sale. While a reader is most unlikely, in 2025, to demand a refund due a lamentable shortage of semi-colons.

Is there an opposing point of view? There is. If the semi-colon was good enough for Austen… then… then… Also, some of us remain the offspring of (a) a noted biographer and (b) a professional editor and you don’t recover easily from a lifelong blow like that, lol.

Speaking personally, if I cracked open the first few pages on Amazon.co.uk and stumbled across a properly-used semi-colon in a regency fiction, it’d be a modest bonus for me. I’d think I was in the hands of someone pretty seriously literate, and I’d be far likelier to read their novel. I’d  also admire the nerve of an author who dared tiptoe a step closer to Austen than I have, myself. But… I still try to avoid using them. And I’ve never yet been dissed in a single review for avoiding them, either.

Now this is pretty daring, but… hey, I am fearless. Here is a famous extract from Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, chapter 3, the sentence in which the Bennet girls attempt to entrap their father into describing Mr Bingley. And what do we have? A triple whammy! Three semi-colons in a single sentence! Even for Austen, this is pretty crazy. (My emphases in bold.)

They attacked him in various ways; with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises; but he eluded the skill of them all; and they were obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour Lady Lucas.

Now, explain to me – in words of one syllable, for I am a simple soul – what’s so cool about all these semi-colons, compared with my edited version below? I know which version is the easier to read.

They attacked him in various ways – with barefaced questions, ingenious suppositions, and distant surmises – but he eluded the skill of them all. They were obliged to accept the second-hand intelligence of their neighbour Lady Lucas.

In other words, my personal guess is that the semi-colon will pass with my mum’s generation, except with regard to lesser-spotted academic tomes. It’s even possible that the recent fuss over the demise of the semi-colon will eventually be classed as a storm in a Regency teacup. So where are you with the semi-colon? Pro? Anti? Or ambivalent? Let me know!!!.