In Praise of Copy Editors

A List of Blunders I Did Not Detect in the Manuscript for A Man Melting & Other Stories

• 'The nineties and naughties' rather than 'nineties and noughties'
  
• 'Capetown' rather than 'Cape Town'
  
• 'confectionary' rather than 'confectionery'
  
• 'hair-lipped' rather than 'hare-lipped'
  
• 'Cocoa Pops' rather than 'Coco Pops'
  
• 'flauncy' (not yet a word) rather than 'flouncy'
  
• Not enough la's in 'Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-te-da' ('Brown Eyed Girl')
  
• 'office stationary' rather than 'office stationery'
  
• 'doll out petty cash' rather than 'dole out…'
  
• I missed out the 'a' in 'Guayaquil' (just once)
  
• Misquoted Mr. Charles Darwin ('The words of Nature are to those of Nature' – D'oh!)
  
• 'Ministerio de Tourismo' rather than 'Turismo'
  
• 'city counsellors' rather than 'councillors'

Thank goodness for copy editors! Now it's a waiting game till the proofs come, and the process will start again.