Spellcheck

As ever at this time of year, I've been enjoying the blue wood anemones in Kensington Gardens. This year my enjoyment is tempered by my recent mortifying discovery that for many years - probably my whole literate life - I have been misspelling anemone, rendering it 'anenome' (as a quick search of this blog will confirm). I was absolutely convinced that 'anenome' was the right spelling, and was only shaken out of my certainty when Nige Jr presented me with incontrovertible proof that for all these years I had been wrong. This is, I suppose, what might be called a blind spot, and it makes me wonder how many more I have... I remember once, many years ago (student days), getting into a big stand-off with Appleyard over the spelling of a word - I can't remember what the word was, but we were both equally, unshakably convinced we had the right spelling. Soon an unfeasibly large (and therefore notional) sum of money was riding on the outcome, and at last the dictionary was consulted. On that occasion, it turned out I was right, but it could have gone either way. Nowadays I wouldn't bet on being right about anything.