"show, don't tell" the critics cry. "tell, don't show" is worth a thought.

Despite the current vogue for the “Show don't tell” ethos of writing it has not always been so. Most bestsellers of recent years use this technique. However, the “tell, don't show” technique has been accepted since time immemorial. Remember we, the human race, started with stories. Told around the fire at night before we had writing, before we had homes, we had language and so told stories. “I knew a bloke who…”

The Greeks, Aeschylus, Homer, Sophocles and so many others told rather than showed. The Icelandic sagas, the Bible, for goodness sake. Beowulf. So the “tell, don't show” thing has been going on for a while.

But I have been talking of ancient works. Times change, has there been anyone successful at doing the same thing in the last century?

Of course there has.

Everyone loves a good story. Tolkien, Hesse, Sartre, Laxness, Ivey and so many others that it would take too long to mention them all. All following the "tell don't show" idea. (a few Nobel prize winners too). Plus there seems to be a fashion for rewriting the Greek myths at the moment, mainly with a feminist point of view. Some of which are excellent. Natilie Haynes and Constanza Casati are particularly floating my boat at the moment.

And of course all those children's books which seem to me to be mostly about farting and poo sell thousands of copies. Hopefully they are “tell don't show” stories.

Don't assume that what they tell you is true.