Quintin Jardine's blog

Thank you, Colonel, and yes, we surely do. We Scots regard that as a form of punctuation, an alternative hyphen. Indeed I’ve known people who could slip two of them into a single word. I appreciate your suggestion, but I’m not about to accede, I’m afraid. I have to tell you that US police ranks are just as complex, probably more so since you have a much more complicated network of forces and agencies, but I can’t recall a single American colleague doing on his work what you suggest I do on mine. The lack of such a foreword has never impeded my enjoyment of anyone’s story-telling. Surely it’s how the characters inter-relate that matters most, not where they’re placed on the ladder?