Idioms…
Not a collective noun for the home of idiots…
… that’s Westminster.
Idiom; an expression, a turn of phrase.
There is one that has its roots in the 1700s and it is still enduring, today.
It appears in Irish poet Edmund Arwaker’s preface to a collection of fables. He wrote;
‘…a Man is not to be judg’d of by his Out-side, any more than a Book by its Title-Page’
It reappeared again, halfway through the 1800s, featured as a headline in the Boston Daily Mail.
Around the same time the concept was famously used by George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans) in the novel, The Mill on the Floss. The character Mr Tulliver remarks on a beautifully bound book, saying;
‘… it seems one mustn’t judge by th’ outside’.
Eighty years ago, it was used again in the mystery; Murder in the Glass Room by Lester Fuller and Edwin Rolfe;
‘You can never tell a book by its cover’.
Scholars will tell us it goes much further back.
The Bible; 1 Samuel 16:7:
‘..the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart’.
Books… can you actually judge one by its cover?
As the author of quite a few books over the years, my answer is; certainly you can. The cover is really important, and…
… there is another yardstick I have learned.
Flickability. I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a book shop, and I pull a likely-read off the shelves, the first thing I do is ‘flick’ through it. Riffle the pages like a card sharp at the tables.
If I see dense copy, slabs of words as thick as a slice of yer mother’s bread pudding… I shove it back. Much like the pressures described in the productivity challenge in the NHS, presentation and usability matter more than we sometimes admit.
I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, neither its layout, but I do. I don’t understand why reading a book should be like hacking through the undergrowth of a rainforest.
Actually I do…
… it’s because pages cost money to print. More pages cost more money to print and from a publisher’s point of view, white space on a page is like a sommelier pouring half a bottle of Pomerol down the sink.
I’m hard to please. When I first see a book I do judge it by its cover and it has to pass the riffle test. Call it readability.
There’s something else. The title…
… it needs to jump off the page to mug me of my hard-earned… spike my interest. Make me curious—something echoed in the wellbeing revolution, where engagement is everything.
Why should I make the subliminal deal all writers and readers make…
Writers, have given days, perhaps months… Readers, why should I give the book three or four hours of my time.
We know what’s in it for the author… catharsis, sharing, maybe a few quid. For the reader; something new, novel, a bright idea.
I’m hard to please… even before I read the first chapter.
The good news is I have found such a book and without reservation I know you are going to like it, too.
The title is ‘De-Frazzle your NHS job’…. Wow, how good is that! Yes! Tell me!
Inside, more white space than a linen cupboard, where the words and layout on the page have time to breathe and shout ‘read me’! Even QR codes for sources of more.
There are charts and cartoons and tick boxes.
The author is Julia Wood, a time-served NHS loyalist with a knack of getting to the nub of a bad day and the trick of making sure it doesn’t happen again, tomorrow—reflecting themes explored in NHS staff: the hidden burden.
She tells us we can; ‘flip the script, in 15 minutes a day.’
This book is about habits, good and bad. It’s about the devil of perfection, efficiency tactics, what to do when everything unravels and frazzles.
She writes about the hidden burden of caring and asks… what if you’re in the wrong job?
It’s about switching off, juggling, looking after yourself, and…
… no, it’s not a cuddly, self-help-woker of a book. It’s hard-edged and practical. Sourced, referenced but somehow, in party mode. There’s room for you to join in, write your thoughts on the page.
Hammered out over years of experience by someone who knows about readability, covers, white space, how to create a bargain with the reader and how to un-frazzle, decompress, get things done and still enjoy life…
… generate ideas, being a working parent, and ignoring feedback (sometimes)—a balance often discussed in working parents in the NHS. With insights from 30 members of serving NHS staff.
This is an excellent book. A resource, useful, thoughtful, truthful, entertaining, as sharp as a tack, and…
… it grabbed me.
Have the best weekend you can.
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
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