Fry's English Delight: Series 1

by Stephen Fry

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.

Cliché
Featuring sick parrots and the cliché crisis that affected the writing of Flaubert, Joyce, and Eliot, and helped shape modern language and culture.

©2008 Testbed Audio Ltd; (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd

LENGTH: 1 hr and 43 mins

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, Humor, Language, Linguistics, History, British Literature

Audible Audio

First published January 7, 2009

About the author

Stephen John Fry is an English comedian, writer, actor, humourist, novelist, poet, columnist, filmmaker, television personality and technophile. As one half of the Fry and Laurie double act with his comedy partner, Hugh Laurie, he has appeared in A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. He is also famous for his roles in Blackadder and Wilde, and as the host of QI. In addition to writing for stage, screen, television and radio he has contributed columns and articles for numerous newspapers and magazines, and has also written four successful novels and a series of memoirs.

See also Mrs. Stephen Fry as a pseudonym of the author.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've loved Stephen Fry since the days when I discovered the Blackadder series, so I had to have a listen to these audiobooks, even if the subject matter is a little boring.

I doubt this will appeal to most people. It's about words and language, where they come from, what their meanings are, and why they exist. Writers and readers, that might be the limited audience scope for this.

Series 1 deals with puns, quotations, metaphors and clichés. I have a love-hate relationship to all of these language forms. Hearing their origins and such was really interesting to me. However, even I found it hard to be fully engaged through out, so I can't imagine someone who's not interested in the wordsmith arts having any interest in this whatsoever.

Fry does an excellent job guiding us through the many interviews and soundbytes used herein. The writing is quite clever as well. All in all, this is good stuff for the very few who go in for it.

[Sandysbookaday (on indefinite hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

ABOUT THIS BOOK: 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.

Cliché
Featuring sick parrots and the cliché crisis that affected the writing of Flaubert, Joyce, and Eliot, and helped shape modern language and culture.

MY THOUGHTS: I have just spent a delightful hour and three quarters gardening with Stephen Fry. Well I gardened and he educated me on the English language... puns, metaphors, quotations and cliches.

My neighbours must think me demented... 'there she is, wandering around her garden, laughing again,' I can hear them say.

A fun and informative listen. And I do hope that my library is going to get the rest of the series.

😊😂😊😂

#FrysEnglishDelight #BBC

THE AUTHOR: Stephen John Fry is an English comedian, writer, actor, humourist, novelist, poet, columnist, filmmaker, television personality and technophile. As one half of the Fry and Laurie double act with his comedy partner, Hugh Laurie, he has appeared in A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. He is also famous for his roles in Blackadder and Wilde, and as the host of QI. In addition to writing for stage, screen, television and radio he has contributed columns and articles for numerous newspapers and magazines, and has also written four successful novels and a series of memoirs.

DISCLOSURE: I listened to the audiobook of Fry's English Delight, narrated by Stephen Fry, published by BBC Audiobooks, via Overdrive.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent listen, but I found myself getting really bored about halfway through.

I thought this would be more about etymology and the origins of the language in general, but this series focused mostly on metaphors, cliches and quotations. Meh.

It was well written/read/spoken, no doubt about that, so even though this wasn't for me, I'm still giving it 3 stars.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't actually a book...but it's a fun read. Fry takes us on a tour of English our convoluted and sometimes confusing language.

"The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language." George Bernard Shaw

Here we are examining "Puns"...no I'm fighting the temptation.

It's both informative and funny (I know..."punny").

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Fry could read the phone book and make it sound fascinating. He's brilliant here as always!

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and funny look at the English language, makes me miss Fry even more on Q.I.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A punny excursion into the (British) English language. The four parts cover puns, metaphors, quotes and clichés. I find such linguistic musings entertaining, and love Fry’s narration, which is how I happened upon this Audible program. Free with Audible subscription.

[Veronique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fry is a genius :O) This series, which was originally a yearly BBC radio programme, focuses on the intricacies and beauty of the English language. I remember listening to these as podcasts and enjoying them immensely back when they aired.

This first season looks at puns, metaphors, quotations, and clichés. Yes, I know, this sounds ever so dry and boring... Well, no :O) Fry has the knack of treating these subjects with humour while at the same time offering us well thought-out investigations. And have I said they are funny?

[Melanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audible Freebie.

Amusing and interesting.

This focuses more on puns and cliches than language in general.

One of the amusing bits early on made me think...
He talks about how a bad joke (specifically the ones found in Christmas Crackers) can be more uniting than good jokes, since when there's a bad joke, everyone shares the same experience of groaning, whereas with a good joke, there's always some people who don't think it's funny.

Perhaps that's why everyone enjoyed my former manager's absolutely horrible puns - because it let the whole office groan in unison.

[Georgesear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discusses puns, gender, contradiction, metaphor, pronunciation, vocabulary, prevalence and history of the English language.

[Karen ⊰✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband and I listen to this while eating dinner. Fry is just awesome; I love his knowledge of the English language and his voice narrating

[Chinara Ahmadova · Rating 3 out of 5]

İngilis dilinin xırdalığına gedən, BBC radiosu üçün yazılan, alim və dilçilərlə gülməli və əyləncəli dialoqlarla bizə ingilis dilinin sirrlərini açmağa çalışdı cənab Fry. Bu ilk seriyada klişe, metafor, sitat və pan kimi dil oyunlarından bəhs etdi, mən də dinlədim, ən sevdiyim isə sitatların analizi və keçmişi idi. Sadəcə digərləri bir az sıxıcı gəldi, bəlkə də gecə dinlədiyim üçün yuxularımın arasına qopub düşürdü :)

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Σήμερα περίμενα τον συνάδελφο να έρθει στο ραντεβού μας για να πάμε στο γραφείο κι άκουσα και το τελευταίο επεισόδιο για τα cliche. Φανταστικές πληροφορίες. "The Bollocks", που λέγανε κάποτε οι Άγγλοι για κάτι πάρα πολύ καλό. Αν σε ενδιαφέρει η γλώσσα, η ετυμολογία, τα δάνεια, η προέλευση των φράσεων, θα περάσεις καλά. Ο πιο ενδιαφέρον τρόπος να περάσεις την ώρα σου όταν σε έχουν στήσει. Δωρεάν με συνδρομή στο audible.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny radio program about words. It has more depth than I initially thought it would.

[Sara Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

got this for free from Audible. really fun and hilarious look at the English language. Stephen Fry rules!

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing, but very British.

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great series looking at various elements of the British language. This series looks at puns, metaphor, quotation and cliché. Its well researched, impeccably presented and very insightful. Nice bite sized segments means it never seems to overtly academic and dry and you'll find that you'll takeaway something from each episode.

[Anne Secher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two words could be used to describe this book: Stephen Fry.

If you're interested in learning a lot about history of the English language with humour, listen to this.

[osoi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Даа, не самое легкое аудиочтиво я выбрала для отпуска – подумала я, прослушав первые 5 минут. Но когда вошла во вкус, меня было уже не остановить х)

Сразу скажу, мне попалась идиотская версия с низким битрейтом и перерывами-скачками, вследствие которых некоторые слова просто «проглатывались», и я упускала мысль ._.

Растекаться о том, как я люблю Фрая и британцев в целом, долго не буду. Они просто обалденные ребята, самые-пресамые укурыши с сотней разных акцентов. Одного взгляда на обложку достаточно, чтобы понять, какой Фрай плюша-брутальняша 8)

Это самый настоящий delight, такой пирожок для интересующихся языком. Должна сказать, что в ходе программы повествование могло забрести в какие-нибудь дебри, не имеющие прямого отношения к теме (в этой части темами стали puns, methaphors, clichés & quotes), что, как ни странно, только добавляет очарования бибисишной радиопрограмме. Участие различных ученых-лингвистов, составителей словарей и других чуваков included.
Я безбожно тупила и перематывала назад, засыпала и пропускала мимо ушей, но все-таки дослушала. Три балла влепила только за качество аудиозаписи, да небольшую заумность, которая поначалу прошлась по мне катком. История выражения «that's the dog's bollocks», еще сто лет назад имевшего положительную окраску, – мой фаворит 8)

[Lydia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because Stephen Fry is always nice to listen to. This is more of a radio show than an audiobook, but it's on Goodreads, so what the hey.

Fry's show briefly covers a few aspects of the English language (in this series: puns, metaphors, quotations, and clichés). I enjoyed the episode on puns the most—especially the bit on terrible British cracker jokes. For reasons that elude me, I love awful groaners, so, it was interesting to hear theories from Fry's interviewees on why people tell bad jokes on purpose.

The rest of the show was humorous and engaging, though I think if you're interested in this subject, you probably won't hear anything new. One of my favorite podcasts, A Way With Words, covers this stuff in greater depth on the regular. At any rate, Fry's series is a fun piece of edutainment.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since this "book" is really a repackaged version of a BBC radio program (programme ? :-) ) my comments fit more precisely on Audible.com than they do here, but I'll cross-post anyway.

I have been known to geek out on history and structure of the English language, so Fry's English Delight did cause me to burst out laughing more than once. As an American, however, some the humor was lost on me. As they speculated in the book itself, American's don't understand the humor behind the Cracker, whatever that is. I gather it's some kind of absolutely horrible pun, but they were right - I didn't really get it. Overall the humor was more dry than I normally partake, and quintessentially British. I also slowed down the speech rate from my normal 1.25x to .90x for my very-unBritish ears. Anglophiles with a grammatical bent will find it worth a listen though.

[Jami]

This is a good BBC4 production. There were some interesting tidbits of information in this freebie from Audible (thank you, Audible!) that I found interesting; I had no idea until now where the phrase "chip on your shoulder" came from or the origin of the word metaphor. I really liked the chapter on puns, as I am a punster at heart! Part of this was informative and part funny.

As for the narration, the main narrator was good. However, some of the "guest narrators" talked too quickly at times for me to understand everything they were saying.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listen to this via Audible.

This isn't really a book or a story, rather an audio show where Stephen Fry takes a look at different parts of the English language and shares more about them with the listener. In the first series he covers puns, metaphors, quotations, and cliches.

I found the program to be funny yet informative, but it didn't quite capture my attention. I didn't hate listening do it by any means, but I have little desire to continue through the series.

If you want to learn more about the English language and have fun while doing so, this might be the thing for you.

[Min · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pun
Metaphor
Quotations
Cliché
are the topics covered in this BBC production. Fry regales with his humor, and brings laughs with education regarding these particular aspects of the English language. I found all of them amusing, however, Metaphor is my favorite of them all because it delves into my beloved subject of etymology. Unwrapping a word's origin, and history offers a greater palette of colors to one's meaning.

I will absolutely seek out more of this series because I do love language so much.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's not really a book, but whatever.
I suppose if you know absolutely nothing about language, it'll be sort of illuminating.
If you're British, you may enjoy it, too. Especially the bit on puns. It's a typical thing, to pick up something that Britons habitually say or do and talk about it in a way, that is both self-deprecating and intensely proud. This gets old quickly and kinda boring for the rest of us, not that they care. Fair enough.
Fry's a dear, as always, but I'd rather just read one of his books or listen to something else he narrates.

[Celia Haupt · Rating 5 out of 5]

What fun! Entertaining and interesting. My first listen was to appreciate the humour and get a sense of it. My second listen was to absorb more interesting facts and to be able to tell my family some of insights at the dinner table. It moves at a pace - too quick to remember the insights and puns/quotes/metaphors after just one listen. Each episode is 25 minutes, which is a very accessible duration. Analysis from experts (literary professors, economists) are included, but this is interesting, not dry and academic.

[Kats · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was essentially a recording of four Radio 4 programmes, two of which I'd also heard 'live' at some other time. Being interested in he evolution and etymology of language, and being a life-long fan of Stephen Fry, this was a fun treat for me. The four topics are puns (brilliantly punny - haha, couldn't resist), clichées, metaphors and quotations. The two programmes on metaphors and clichées were actually a bit dull, hence only three stars.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light, fun collection of four Stephen Fry radio broadcasts about language. While it won't break any scholarly territory for those who already think about metaphors and cliches, it is an enjoyable listen. The audio did not transfer particularly well to audiobook, as different interviews were recorded with differing quality. Overall, enjoyable, witty, and intelligent, but a mostly surface level of language concepts.

[Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Stephen, with the help of other clever folk, digs down into the English language. They discuss where such phrases as 'Show a leg', 'cock-up' and 'sick as a parrot' originate; why us English like 'bad cracker jokes', and where we would be without metaphors. I found it occasionally surprising, at times funny, but always interesting.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fry, an English writer and comedian, created a series of radio programs on the English language. In this first of a series, there are four parts, one each is about puns, metaphors, quotations and cliches. The content is light and humorous and made me think about the ways we use language.

I have this short audio (less than 2 hours) because Audible gave it away to members at one time.