Series eight in Stephen Fry's consistently amusing and interesting series about the English language, with four half-hour programmes originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The first involves John Lydon, better known as Johnny Rotten, talking about the problems of emotional language in "Words Fail Me" ("A cracker", said the UK newspaper The Guardian). Then what rainy small talk really means in "Talking About the Weather". "Do You Promise Not to Tell" enters the odd world of secret language, and "English Plus One" gets inside the minds of people who are bilingual in English and one more language.
A fifth series from BBC Radio 4 in which Stephen Fry examines, with the help of experts, the highways and byways of the English language. In these four episodes he tells The Story of X: a letter holy and profane, sexy and chaste; discusses intonation, the "song" of English and how cadence affects meaning; muses on the art and craft of conversation - and whether true conversation can happen on TV and radio - and ponders the meaning of meaning, and the gap between brain and mouth that means language can never truly represent thought. In addition, he tells us why blue as a colour is a newish invention.
New Scientist employs and commissions the best writers in their fields from all over the world. Our editorial team provide cutting-edge news, award-winning features and reports, written in concise and clear language that puts discoveries and advances in the context of everyday life today and in the future.
Discover the new edition of the award-winning course for teaching English as it is spoken. Using content from the BBC, Speakout 2nd Edition builds the skills and knowledge students need to communicate confidently.
Speakout is the English language course that includes video content from the BBC to engage students and make teaching easier.
It follows a balanced approach to topics, language development and skills work. Speaking activities are prominent, but not at the expense of the other core skills of reading, writing and listening, which are developed systematically throughout.
The Spectator is a weekly delight for anyone who loves good writing, contentious opinion and hard-hitting comment. With the finest writing on current affairs, politics, the arts, books and life, you'll read regular columnists who delight, provoke and amuse and editorial features of incredible breadth and depth.Established in 1828, The Spectator is the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language. Its taste for controversy, however, remains undiminished. There is no party line to which its writers are bound - originality of thought and elegance of expression are the sole editorial constraints.
