Words are our most useful tools, yet they carry the baggage of centuries of hidden meanings, and we seldom look inside to discover their dark secrets. This talk is full of surprises and humour, with plenty of audience response, including a session of Call My Bluff, and an invitation to add improbable but true foreign words to our already rich English language. 

Colin Davidson was an editor on the Daily Mail, who also researched blood feuds and interviewed murderers in Yugoslavia, acted as a consultant to newspapers in East Europe after the fall of Communism and served on the code committee of the Press Complaints Council.

He also runs a successful opera appreciation group for the u3a, and was formerly the u3a national adviser on opera.