Fry's English Delight

Stephen Fry hosts four programmes on the joys of the English language - as heard on BBC Radio 4. Current Puns: Why does our language groan with the weight of puns? What exactly is a pun? And who, or what, is the Thief of Bad Gags? Metaphor: the English language is chock-full of maritime metaphors - cock up, taken aback, chip on your shoulder and show a leg. And, with the help of a Greek removals firm, we also find the origin of the word 'metaphor'. Quotation: the uses and misuses of quotations are revealed, and there is also a frank confession from a quotation compiler, which we cannot divulge here. Cliche: this title features sick parrots and the cliche crisis that affected the writing of Flaubert, Joyce and Eliot, and helped shape modern language and culture.

Files:
1. Puns - 25:08
2. Metaphors - 25:34
3. Quatations - 27:22
4. Cliches - 26:14

Four 30-minute BBC audio programs presented by Stephen Fry indulging his delight in the English language. Included in this release: CURRENT PUNS: why weak puns and lame jokes are important and oil the social wheels; METAPHOR: from the freshly minted to the ancient fossils embedded in our language; QUOTATION: literary quotations, clever bon mots, malapropisms; CLICHES: how original coinages gradually become the stock-in-trade of lazy writers.