Florence lives for words, especially the unruly ones that sneak into unexpected (and uncomfortable) places. She likes giving attention to small things, and spending time with the minute and overlooked. [Such as *,/?.;”>&!]
She is a researcher of Renaissance literature, a podcaster, radio guest, journalist, and author of the upcoming title from Profile Books An Admirable Point: A Brief History of !
Florence was raised in Berlin in a German-Iranian household. After school, she moved to the UK where she was educated at the University of Cambridge, and the University of St Andrews. She has held several research posts in academia before discovering her passion for writing literary non-fiction on language and culture for a general audience.
Florence is a BBC New Generation Thinker, and has served as juror for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize. She also gives workshops on Renaissance literature and creative writing. When she isn’t reading, thinking, or typing, she can be found training her young dog old tricks, and growing every kind of berry in her garden. Or trying to.
An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark!
Love it or hate it, the exclamation mark has been with us from Beowulf to the spam email – an enthusiastic history for language lovers!
Few punctuation marks elicit quite as much love or hate as the exclamation mark. It’s bubbly and exuberant, an emotional amplifier whose flamboyantly dramatic gesture lets the reader know: here be feelings! Scott Fitzgerald famously stated exclamation marks are like laughing at your own joke; Terry Pratchett had a character say that multiple !!! are a ‘sure sign of a diseased mind’. So what’s the deal with ! ?
An Admirable Point recuperates the exclamation mark from its much maligned place at the bottom of the punctuation hierarchy. It explores how ! came about in the first place some six hundred years ago, and uncovers the many ways in which ! has left its mark on art, literature, (pop) culture, and just about any sphere of human activity – from Beowulf to spam emails, ee cummings to neuroscience.
Whether you think it’s over-used, or enthusiastically sprinkle your writing with it, ! is inescapable.
Points of Contention: A Cultural History of Punctuation
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