Oh!

It is generally accepted within the literary world that good writing should contain as few exclamation marks as possible. I do use the exclamation mark sometimes, but I'm uncomfortable with it because I read somewhere that using one to create emphasis is a bit like laughing at your own joke. There's a famous account of someone sending a telegram that contained a single question mark. I can't remember who sent it – it was somebody like Cole Porter who wanted to find out from his agent how ticket sales for his latest show were going. Whoever it was, he sent a telegram saying: "?" and the agent (immediately understanding what the question was) replied: "!" Rather neat, don't you think?

It's somewhat strange when an exclamation mark is used in real names. The English town of Westward Ho! is, I think, the only place name in the UK that officially contains one. Apparently, there is a town in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha! which sounds like a really fun place to live, I reckon. As Nottingham is now bidding to become World Design Capital in 2012, perhaps we should rename the place Nottingham! so that the world might prick up its ears and listen. There are shows and films that have an exclamation mark in their title – Oh! Calcutta! is one example, as is Oliver! and Airplane! There used to be a television series in the 1970s called The Persuaders! which was very much in the genre of the typically stylish crime comedies that were around at that time, but I'm not sure why the exclamation mark was deemed necessary. It didn't last for long, but it gathered a small cult status amongst its followers, not least because the two detective protagonists were played by Tony Curtis and Roger Moore – both very big names in the early 1970s.

I used to love The Persuaders! because (like The Champions, which I wrote about a few weeks ago) it was glamorous and cosmopolitan and displayed a playboy world that I could only dream about as I looked up from the gutter to the stars. Curtis played a rough-edged American called Danny Wilde, and Moore played a British aristocrat named Lord Brett Sinclair. It amused me at the time that the producers of the show should have regarded this particular name as classy. Whereas 'Sinclair' (derived from St Clair) has a certain aristocratic ring to it (I have a friend called Adam Sinclair – he's pictured here – and I've always considered that his name lends him a certain noblesse oblige), 'Brett' on the other hand sounds rather thuggish to me. It's a bit like naming a character Lord Wayne de Montefiore or some such aberration.

Anyway, to get back to the subject, exclamation marks in writing should be used sparingly, if at all. So from now on, you will rarely see me using one, that's for certain!!!!!

Toodle pip, old loves.