Very Good Listen

As ever Gyles is massively entertaining and educational. This is a lovely complement to the Purple podcast.

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3 people found this helpful

Disappointing

Gyles Brandreth is an acquired taste - but he's one I have certainly acquired. And as I'm interested in writing, words, spelling and grammar, this title seemed a perfect choice.

For the first half of the book I was dead right.

Brandreth presents an accessible and entertaining guide to the rules of grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. As you'd expect, he includes many witty, sometimes risqué and often memorable examples with some laugh out loud moments. All read with Brandreth's characteristic gusto. Enjoyable stuff.

Unfortunately, the second half is simply a series of uninspiring and not particularly helpful lists: American alternatives to British Words; American Spellings; Jargon words Brandreth doesn't like; Technology words... It goes on forever. Rapidly delivered, many of these lists don't really work well without seeing the printed word. It's essentially padding - the sort of lightweight content Brandreth can trot out over breakfast when he realises he's far short of his word count.

Such a shame and with GB's name on the cover, it can only be described as a disappointing missed opportunity.

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3 people found this helpful

Very funny but hard to follow in this format

I'm a pedant at times when it comes to grammar. Though I admit, I'm not perfect: I make mistakes, and judging by this book, more than I realised. But I do take great delight in these books, those that lay out the rules of grammar and bring the fun of the subject out (yes, the fun of apostrophes, it DOES exist).

Brandreth narrates this himself, adding his own distinctive voice to the already rather literary topic. He covers various areas of the English language, and adds little stories, tips, jokes and a lot of humour to what could be quite a dry tome.

I laughed aloud listening to this in Asda, well, snorted actually, but let's not dwell on that one. A line about diarrhea if I remember rightly. For 90% of the running length, this was a pleasure to listen to.

Lots of the time I was nodding along, smiling at the asides and jokey material. But as an audiobook, sometimes the format did let the book down - long, long (40 minute long chapters!) lists going through the alphabet, a list of words in Cockney Rhyming Slang for example. If reading the paper version (or Kindle), you might scan through, but this was not as easy to do with the Audible.

I also found, because of the nature of the book, when Brandreth discusses the rules of punctuation and grammar, I found it very hard to concentrate and take it all in, with descriptions and examples, it moved too quickly and didn't give me time to digest and internalise what was being said before it moved on. On paper, I could re-read and slow it all down (not the same as slowing an audiobook's speed).

So, while I loved the book, and found it both entertaining and informative, the format may not be for everyone. With hindsight, I would have got a little more from this if reading on a screen or on paper, though I liked the narrator immensely, he's witty and reassuringly sensible about his grammar, if incredibly picky (my own standards I now look at as much less lofty than I thought just a few days ago!).

For anyone interested in improving their knowledge of the rules of grammar while also having to hide a few chortles.

With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.

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11 people found this helpful

A very good book

A very fought provoking work that has me giggling like a little girl scary to think of me that was and so the only one Queens English was going the way of the dogs

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4 people found this helpful

Grammar for adults!!

As a (newish) tutor of the English Language, I found this book fascinating and actually quite helpful as I am always looking for different ways to explain the complexities and often darn-right absurdities of the language! Be warned!! This book has a lot of swearing; it may not be suitable for younger ears!

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