Colette Hiller's perfect words

Colette Hiller’s Colossal Words taps into children’s innate gift for language by introducing them to words of substance and precision

There’s nothing sanctimonious or soporific about Colette Hiller’s Colossal Words (although though those are two of the chosen ones). Each of the 75 selected for this book has substance – a satisfying word children can get their teeth into and then use to enliven conversation and writing. This is not a dictionary – far from it – so no dry definitions. Instead, each word has its own page, and is described via an illustrated poem, with an accompanying quote or fascinating fact. And these are rhymes to be read out loud to help each word stick in the memory.

So what inspired a book all about words? “Children are natural wordsmiths,” says Colette Hiller. “But despite this, adults often take pains to avoid seemingly sophisticated words – and they really needn’t. If a child can grasp a concept, they will relish using the word itself. “It may seem odd that an eight-year-old might be familiar with the word unbiased, yet what child isn’t absolutely au fait with the principle of fairness – this isn’t a stretch at all,” she says. Then there are the precise words that describe something perfectly in the shortest possible space. “Once you know the word penultimate, you wouldn’t want to say second to last.”

Hiller trialled ten of the words and their poems in the book with pupils at a west London school over three sessions, with satisfying results. “After this, the appetite for language had changed. They were using these words in written and spoken language. Also, you could hear the word retaliate being shouted out across the playground!” Retaliate was, as you’ll have guessed, part of the trial. “Small concept, big word – getting back at someone is something that children know instantly.”

Colette Hiller's perfect words — Colette Hiller’s 75 chosen words are made memorable through rhyme and fun asides. Illustrations: Tor Freeman

Colette Hiller has always been involved with bringing words to life. Born to English parents in the US, she went to a performing arts high school in New York. She arrived in London as part of the cast of the original stage show Annie (working alongside the likes of Sheila Hancock) and stayed. To fans of the iconic film Aliens, she is remembered for her Corporal Ferro – the pilot who utters the phrase still treasured by gamers of a certain age: ‘We’re in the pipe, five by five’. But theatre was much more her thing, and she spent most of her acting career treading the boards with companies such as the RSC and National.

Even though Colette Hiller is still sometimes asked what it was like to appear in Aliens or Annie, she prefers to talk about what she’s done since. “It was a big part of my life, but it was also a really Eureka moment to understand you could have creative satisfaction not by acting but by creating.” She worked as a BBC producer,

mainly within education. “Always on the innovation side, looking at new projects and researching new ideas.” She was also one of the clever minds behind Sing London. Those pianos that grace public spaces in London and other great cities were one brilliant creation and were inspired by the idea of small interventions that make a big place more human-scale and navigable – and more fun.

Perhaps no surprise that Hiller – as the mother of a twin boy and girl – would also turn her mind to fun interventions to help children navigate that great big landscape of language. She created Applehead, a much-loved CD of songs that describe exploring the world as a small person. “I’m interested in making anybody smart,” she says. Her own children were reading by age three – nothing unusual since she was also taught to read and write very young.

“The aim is to show that you are the rightful owner of these words. This is your language – it’s yours for the taking”

Colossal Words taps into this same idea of exploring and having fun. “The aim is to spark a real love of language and to show that you are the rightful owner of these words. This is your language – it’s yours for the taking.” Hiller believes one of the problems around words is that, while we teach very young children lots of them, by the time they are settled in school some of that joy of naming and perfectly describing gets swamped by the rigours of vocabulary and spelling tests (often bunched together).

Of course, children need to learn the workaday words – she calls them “meat and potato” words – but something of the excitement of language can be lost. “We’re always telling them to be descriptive. It’s such a wrong way to do it. It’s ‘be accurate – what do you see?'” Little wonder then that brevity found a place in Colossal Words, with a suitably succinct poem. And, while Hiller has a beef about the wishy-washy descriptive, she enjoys the arrow-sharp nondescript – so that made the cut. She thinks children should learn words that capture nuance, as well as precision. “Why is it a word like dangerous is dull and yet perilous is interesting? It’s to do with shades of meaning.”

While she loves words, Colette Hiller says she is not a great speller and has long used rhymes and verbal tricks to remember tough double letter combinations (she has one for spelling colossal). And she clearly recalls those heartsink moments of childhood when you are told to look something up. “The minute you are looking up words in a dictionary it becomes a chore,” she says. “The difference here is it’s someone sharing their delight in the word.” Fittingly, zest is the very last of the 75 – a joyful ending to a book that explores owning your language and finding the perfect word to describe precisely what you see.