The Biggest Aspidistra?

How often should be using the word "aspidistra" on the radio, especially when it's a code word for "radio."

This week on Hoot and Holler, (wesufm.org, Thusday April 24, 4-5 pm, and at 88.1 FM) I speak with Deborah Swift about her historical thriller The Shadow Network, which is set during WW II. It features a protagonist who sings songs over a secret British network that broadcasts propaganda to Germany over a surreptitious radio network, code word "Aspidistra." That same network plays a significant role in another WW II thriller we featured in an early Hoot and Holler episode with Stephen Ronson about his book The Berlin Agent.

And don't tell big brother, but Swift and Ronson were not to make literary hay with the exotic plant. George Orwell published an

early novel called Keep the Aspidistra Flying.

Why and what is an aspidistra? It's a flowering herbaceous plant that multiplies via rhizome, and is native to Southeast Asia. The flowers emerge, uniquely, directly from the root ball. The word was familiar to WW II music listeners because of a novelty radio hit by British singer Gracie Fields called The Biggest Aspidistra in the World. It's a song replete with mild double entendre, clever wordplay and Fields' Mancunian charm.

Say, does this post make my Aspidistra look big?