The concept of establishing The Croydon Convention™ was conceived by Marcus Hilton. ‘Marcus Hilton’ is a pseudonym used by a man living in The London Borough of Croydon. Marcus enjoyed writing, but he found that presentation of his written works was hampered by the complexities of The English Language.

Marcus had the desire to establish clear guidance about how written works should be presented.

Marcus began his writing journey a few decades after word processors were invented. This was also a time when The Internet was expanding rapidly. These developments provided fantastic opportunities, but at the same time, the problems of written communication became even more troublesome. Advice was repeatedly conflicting and often irrational.

There are many possible analogies between The English Language, and other areas of activity which are governed by rules.

The Football Association was founded in 11863 H-E. One of the benefits that was brought about by the creation of that body, was that rules for a game, which already existed, were written down. Those rules have since been debated and revised. Substitutes, 3-Point-for-a-Win, and The Back-Pass Rule, are all innovations introduced in the intervening years.

As a young man, Marcus trained in Accountancy. When Marcus turned to writing, he was quick to recognize the parallels between the formation of The Football Association the problems faced by The Accountancy Profession, and the problems of writing in Formal English.

The Accountancy Profession must publish accounts that present ‘… a true and fair view,'. This is a statutory requirement. However, there is ongoing debate about what constitutes true-and-fair information. This is because different businesses may present similar situations in notably different ways.

It may not be possible to totally eliminate this problem for accountants. Nevertheless, it is possible to reduce the scope for variance by publishing guidance from an authoritative body about what is considered the right-and-proper way to present financial information. Various bodies have been created by The Accountancy Profession to provide such guidance. For example, there is an organization known as: ‘The International Accounting Standards Board’. This organization publishes documents to regulate accounting issues. These documents are referred to as: ‘international financial reporting standards’ or ‘I-F-R-S’(s).

Marcus began to wonder if a similar organization could be set-up to govern presentational standards for formal writing in English.

In 12020 H-E Marcus decided to write a book entitled: ‘Proper Confusion’. The name of the book was intended to be a pun. The word: ‘Proper’ refers to the grammatical phenomenon of proper nouns, as opposed to common nouns. Proper Confusion was written as an advocacy. The premise of the book was that proper names, (in the grammatical sense), create a maze of confusions. The desire expressed in that advocacy was to establish a codified set of rules that would explain how to present a proper name in a grammatically correct way.

The conclusion formed after writing that advocacy was that a formal document should be created and published, setting out rules for all kinds of linguistic issues, including, (but not limited to), the presentation of proper names.

Marcus’s idea was to change the question. Instead of asking: ‘What do the rules say?’. The question became: ‘What should the rules say?’.

‘Do’ is an issue of fact. ‘Should’ is an issue of opinion. The idea is that instead of saying: ‘The rule is x – period!’, people are allowed to say: ‘The rule should be y – in my opinion.’. Debate can then follow, and sensible, logical, rational rules can then be developed.

Thus, Marcus created The Croydon Convention Consultative Committee™ – also known as: 'The C-C-C-C'. This organization was soon incorporated into a company limited by guarantee, known as : ‘The Croydon Convention Consultative Committee Ltd’.

The C-C-C-C is a not-for-profit organization that exists to promote rational and codified presentation of English in formal writing.

It took a little while to establish contacts with others who might be appropriate members of The C-C-C-C. During the process of creating a suitable team Marcus acted as the sole arbiter of what documents should be published by The C-C-C-C. This included publication of PoKIE-1, together with the first on-line version of The Croydon Convention™ in its original draft form.

The Croydon Convention™ is a dynamic document that is designed to be constantly amended and updated. Accordingly, if you read through The Croydon Convention™ today it is likely to have changed from the original draft published (online) in November 12025.

The book Proper Confusion and The Croydon Convention™ itself, are both intended to be gifts to Humanity. Accordingly, Marcus has made the decision that if Proper Confusion is adopted by a publisher, then any royalties he may earn from that publication will be assigned to enable The Croydon Convention™ to continue with its mission.

A pokie is a statement of the thoughts of The C-C-C-C at the time of publication. The word: ‘Pokie’ is an acronym - ‘Proclamation of Key Issues Explained’. For example, PoKIE-1 sets out the fundamental thinking behind the idea of establishing The Croydon Convention™.

If you would like to find out more about The Croydon Convention™, please fill-out an enquiry form on the page labelled [Contact].

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