Communication breakdown

A FRIEND WHO ONCE edited a newspaper in Todmorden, where red rose meets white, had a particular foible. Every time the office received a press release from Yorkshire Television proclaiming the talent of “the irrepressible Mollie Sugden”, he would reach for the blue pencil. “The lady is all too easy to repress,” John would say, striking out the adjective. “The irrepressible Sugden,” who was from neigh-bouring Keighley, became the kind of joke Kingsley Amis put into his novel, Girl, 20, where General Franco was (irony alert) “a Christian gentleman”. In real life Amis mocked public utility companies which sent out bumf promising “exciting offers”. Those linguistic horrors! In the modern media world a public figure has only to complete a dozen years of hustling before the dubbing begins. “National treasures”…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, August/September 2024

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