Mark Meynell

Let the MEANING choose the WORD, 3 Jun 2013

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It has its gainsayers (eg Steven Poole Unspeak: Words Are Weapons is pretty disparaging, though unfairly in my view) but George Orwell's Politics and the English Language, is prophetic. It is great that Penguin has released it in this format, therefore. Of course some of his linguistic concerns are matters of taste and fashion (as Steven Poole rightly notes). But written at the close of the Second World War, this article exposes the sham sincerity and dissembling motivation behind so much political speech and writing. That is the essay's great virtue. And it has not gone out of date at all.

In fact, at times, all the… Read more

Reliably hilarious as ever, 2 Jun 2013

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It's hard to believe that ISIAC has been going on so long. Of course Humph is greatly missed, but Jack Dee is sounding much more at ease in the chairman's chair (though he still sounds a trifle stilted in the introductions to some of the games). But the other regulars are still on form - and one of the delights is hearing them laugh at each other's gags. Graeme Garden for me is always the most reliably funny and absurd. That is of course not a subjective view at all.

Highlights from this compilation:
- the 2 variants of Mornington Crescent - Cockney Rhyming slang, and the Welsh version with satnav
- Victoria Wood is a great addition - would be good if she was more… Read more

Even on paper, decades later, Bernstein effervesces and thrills, 24 May 2013

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This is a thrilling read. Bernstein's vigour and life-force exude every page of this transcript - the last major interview he gave before his death in 1990. It helps that Jonathan Cott knows his stuff and his questions or comments are themselves interesting and insightful. But what matters most is the responses they elicit. Bernstein seems unendingly eager for a greater understanding the world, his curiosity for all things from child psychology, Jewish philosophy, the Beatles, the poetry of Keats, the Fall of the Berlin War (which had occurred just days before the interview), the Reagan-Bush years as well as, of course, the great classical musical tradition of which he was a part. It is… Read more