It’s good to talk about our feelings take Susie’s word for it

When I was growing up we had a Cambridge Dictionary in our house. It was as heavy as a doorstop and its pages were tracing paper-thin. Over the years I watched our family word bible become more and more tatty, as we hauled it in and out of the living-room bookcase during homework sessions and games of Scrabble. I seem to recall my mum also used it to press flowers, and a lucky four-leaf clover I once found on my way home from school.

By the time my three siblings and I left home, some pages were missing and its royal blue hardback cover was half-ripped off. Of course by then it was about to become obsolete, thanks to the internet and the computer spellcheck.

But while the humble dictionary has gone the way of the Yellow Pages, someone who will never be without one is Countdown’s Susie Dent.

During lockdown she was often buried in the pages of a dictionary, trying to make sense of those turbulent days.And by sharing a daily definition on Twitter, she became a source of comfort for her million-plus followers.

Now she wants to help more people with a new book filled with words that have been used through the ages to express emotions. Our interview with Susie (on pages 6&7) is an education but it also made me realise just how important it is to verbalise how we feel. Because, as Susie perfectly sums up,“If you know there is a name for something, you can also take some comfort in knowing you’re not alone – other people have experienced it before.”