Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE

On this day...

3 February 1874     Gertrude Stein, American writer, playwright, feminist and original, was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, though she lived most of her adult life in France. You might enjoy the odd experience of hearing Brendan Behan talking briefly about her

4 February 1925     The American novelist and poet Russell Hoban was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of his most famous books, Riddley Walker, creates a fascinatingly debased post-atomic-war version of the English language

5 February 1914     The controversial American author William Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, was born in St Louis, Missouri (1914). You can listen to a 1963 BBC interview with him