Product Description

From empty cliche to meaningless jargon, dangling participle to sentences without verbs, the English language is reeling. It is under attack from all sides. Politicians dupe us with deliberately evasive language. Bosses worry about impacting the bottom line while they think out of the box. Academics talk obscure mumbo jumbo. Journalists and broadcasters, who should know better, lazily collaborate.

John Humphrys wittily and powerfully exposes the depths to which our beautiful language has sunk and offers many examples of the most common atrocities. He also dispenses some sensible guidance on how to use simple, clear and honest language. Above all, he shows us how to be on the alert for the widespread abuse - especially by politicians - and the power of the English language. (20040901)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13535 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Ann Widdecombe, New Statesman
'for all those who care about the English language'

Review
'Humphrys is passionate about language – and very funny too' (Rod Liddle )

'Greatly enjoyable' (Simon Hoggart, Guardian )

'for all those who care about the English language' (Ann Widdecombe, New Statesman )

'It is always exhilarating to read a book which says what so many of us think' (Jonathan Keates, Spectator )

'Timely and lively' (Sunday Telegraph )

'Let us be very clear about this from the start: John Humphrys is a Good Thing' (Evening Standard )

'the Jack Russell of the Today programme has now chosen to take some well aimed snaps at solecism, jargon, cliche and weasel words... It is always exhilarating to read a book which says what so many of us think' (Spectator )

'I commend Citizen Humphrys' (Daily Mail )

'You will have fun with this book' (Guardian )

'an exquisite sensitivity to the misuse of the English language' (The Sunday Times )

About the Author
In a journalistic career spanning forty-five years John Humphrys has reported from all over the world for the BBC and presented its frontline news programmes on both radio and television. He has won a string of national awards and been described as a ‘national treasure’ – all of which he attributes to longevity and luck. He presents Radio 4’s Today programme and BBC2’s Mastermind. (20040901)

Customer Reviews

Incisive and amusing
I like this man, he is not an academic and he has a great ability see through the whaffle and nonsense to which we are all exposed on a daily basis in the media, and politics, I think many of us are so numb to the constant barrage off this meaningless guff, that we are actually influenced by it

How many times do you hear a phrase or a cliche and it just grates a little ?, you know it is irritating, but you just subliminally accept it .

Humphries identified so many areas where people that seek to influence us all, or persuade us that they are clever, pad out their dialogue with meaningless and unnnecessary words, often designed to avoid answering the question, making any commitment, or to exclude the ordinary mortal and con him/her into thinking that they posess some great insight.

I always thought Humphries was a good presenter/interviewer, now I understand that one of the things that gives him such a clear view and the ability to see all this is his lackofpretense and privilege ...
although many probably accuse Humphries of being a pedant, I thought this book was great, and I am much better for reading it

Gives us pause for thought, before thought too is controlled
Subtitled `The Mangling and manipulating of the English Language', this book is an enjoyable rant from journalist and BBC presenter Humphrys; you can almost hear his voice as you read it. `Have something to say and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret to style,' said Matthew Arnold, the Victorian writer, and that's what this book is about.

Humphrys hates sloppy overblown cliché-ridden language when it's used by those who should know better - not least when it's broadcast by the BBC. He hates jargon. He hates trendies who spout that rules confine language when in fact rules actually liberate it. As George Orwell said, slovenly language `makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.'

But most of all Humphrys hates the way our language is being mangled and manipulated by people trying to sell us things or, far more worryingly, ideas.

There are so many instances to point up his concerns. We lose good words when we use them wrongly but we also lose them when they become devalued. How on earth a soccer player can be regarded as a `hero' is beyond me too. As Humphrys says, `You become a hero in football by doing something that carries no risk (except possibly jeopardising your vast salary) and for which you have been trained since you were old enough to lace up your own boots... Skilled footballers, yes. Heroes, no.'

He once heard a salad dressing described as `awesome' and adds, `I wonder what that makes the Victoria Falls in full flood or the Beethoven Quartets.'

None of us are without sin, but those who care do at least try to get it right. He's not above castigating himself, either. So, nobody's perfect!

Our language is showing signs of obesity. Tautology is ubiquitous and he offers some examples: future prospects, past history, future plans, safe havens and - believe it or not! - live survivors! You see signs along the road informing you of `delays due to an earlier accident'; all that should have said was, `delays due to an accident' - unless someone has mastered time-travel, of course...

Humphreys' concerns are mainly with the written word - that includes politicians' speeches, since they're written by a speech-writer or spin-doctor. Most broadcasters should have given what they're going to say some thought then written it down before reading it out. He mentions one exception, however - when John Arlott was speaking on a live broadcast he always worked out exactly how his sentence would end before he started it.

Now we come to manipulating the language - telling us black is white or covering something up with a euphemism. In the eighties when British Rail announced it was abolishing second class travel, renaming it standard class, Bernard Levin pointed out that they were doing no such thing. So long as there's a first class, whatever remains must be second. Then there are those job advertisements - such as, `Manual hygiene trainer'. The successful applicant for this one was to offer `hands-on' advice to health workers with `particular attention to cross-infection minimisation'. Put simply, `teach them to wash their hands...'

You won't be surprised to learn there are several sections in the book devoted to politicians. Humphreys actually likes them as a breed and considers many are hard-working and undervalued. But they all seem to fall into the trap of mangling and manipulating language - our language. They misuse our money, too - though they keep referring to it as `government funds'. The government invests money in certain enterprises, they say; the government can't, as it doesn't have its own money to invest; in fact, it has the tax-payer's money to invest.

Newspapers, inevitably, are not immune. Clichéd language is second nature to journalists, such as: feelings always run high; doubts are always nagging; grinds to a halt; people die tragically (as opposed to joyfully), and so on... Headlines are an art-form and they mangle English due to lack of space and usually to raise a smile too. Broadcasters can't use that argument, though; as Humphrys points out, it saves precisely one ninth of a second to use a one-syllable word instead of a three-syllable word and no programme measures time in fractions of seconds.

Worse still, however, are those misguided if well-intentioned people who would fit quite nicely in George Orwell's Thought Police from 1984. In the US a white man who ran a municipal agency was forced to resign after he had described his budget as `niggardly'. Humphrys says, `This is not only etymologically absurd, it is pernicious.' This thing couldn't happen in the UK? Just wait...

We should be demanding that people in power use clear simple English instead of the clichéd dumbed-down inflated and senseless drivel that so often passes for English today. We can all make a difference. Question what the writer or speaker means. Query the assumptions made. Humphreys gives us all pause for thought. Before thought too is controlled, of course.

I suspect this book won't be a runaway bestseller like Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots & Leaves. But it certainly deserves a wide audience. It will amuse and annoy and, more importantly, it warns the unwary to be on guard against being manipulated by people who should know better.

Disssapinting and Thrown away!
What can I say?
I gave up reading after 180 pages of the same, repetitive, dull writing. There is nothing enlightening about the English language and use in this book, just page after page of pet hates and moaning. Nothing that gladdens the heart is found in this book.
Sadly one of the few books I've ever thrown away!