Tail Tale Tit

Breaking news!

Hoovering the Roof, the East Dulwich Writers' Group anthology, has gone stellar!

Well, OK, maybe not quite stellar, but we are going to have to reprint mere weeks after our launch and even allowing for the recent gift-giving season, that's got to be pretty good going, eh?

And My Man in Spain, Steve Redwood, has said some very kind words that he's agreed to let us use as a cover quote.

So far, so good.
But things are rarely that straightforward in the world of wordsmiths.

I sent Steve's quote to the anthology contributors, and they were suitably flattered.
Just one small problem.
In his review, Steve had used the words twist in the tail.
'Surely that should be tale,' said one contributor.
'No, I reckon it's definitely tail,' said a second.
'Bloody writers,' grumbled a third. (That was me). 'Look, I've Googled both versions and there's contradictory advice. I reckon it could be either. But these are Steve's words, so I reckon the decision should be his.'

So I emailed Senor Redwood.
A nice polite email asking if he wanted to go with a twist in the literal tale or the metaphorical tail.

What a fool I am! You'd really think I'd know better.
Next time I opened up my Inbox I was greeted by a veritable flurry of emails from My Man in Spain.
Each was brief and to the point - and increasingly infuriating.
(I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing I nearly wet myself reading them.)

The time has to come to be decisive.

I'm staking my claim for tail and offer the following as justification:
If you say the tale of the tail, you mean a story about a tail.
If you say the tail of the tale, you mean the ending of the story, which may have been about anything, including but not exclusively nether quarter apendages.
A twist in the tail, implies an unexpected ending and that's what I reckon Senor Redwood meant, even if he refuses to settle the argument and is having far too much fun watching us squirm.

Voting is now open.
Which is to be?
Support your local tail.