Reviews
"For anyone interested in the history of the BBC's problematic relationship with the English language, as seen from within the workings of the predecessor of the current Pronunciation Unit, this book provides a wealth of behind-the-scenes detail and interesting anecdotes." -- Joanna Thornborrow, University of Western Brittany, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development "In this fascinating account of the rise, fall and legacy of the Advisory Committee, Schwyter draws on extensive research involving, amongst other resources, those of the BBC Written Archives Centre, to provide first-hand evidence from letters, committee minutes and other documents. In addition to chapters covering the initial set-up of the Committee, the various problems it encountered, leading to reconstitution, the linguistic changes dealt with and the final stages of the committee, Schwyter provides useful appendices containing brief biographies of the Committee members, the minutes of the reconstituted Committee from 20th September 1934, and, perhaps most useful of all, a subset of words discussed by the Committee." --NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution, "In this fascinating account of the rise, fall and legacy of the Advisory Committee, Schwyter draws on extensive research involving, amongst other resources, those of the BBC Written Archives Centre, to provide first-hand evidence from letters, committee minutes and other documents. In addition to chapters covering the initial set-up of the Committee, the various problems it encountered, leading to reconstitution, the linguistic changes dealt with and the final stages of the committee, Schwyter provides useful appendices containing brief biographies of the Committee members, the minutes of the reconstituted Committee from 20th September 1934, and, perhaps most useful of all, a subset of words discussed by the Committee." --NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution, "For anyone interested in the history of the BBC's problematic relationship with the English language, as seen from within the workings of the predecessor of the current Pronunciation Unit, this book provides a wealth of behind-the-scenes detail and interesting anecdotes." -- Joanna Thornborrow, University of Western Brittany, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development"In this fascinating account of the rise, fall and legacy of the Advisory Committee, Schwyter draws on extensive research involving, amongst other resources, those of the BBC Written Archives Centre, to provide first-hand evidence from letters, committee minutes and other documents. In addition to chapters covering the initial set-up of the Committee, the various problems it encountered, leading to reconstitution, the linguistic changes dealt with and the final stages of the committee, Schwyter provides useful appendices containing brief biographies of the Committee members, the minutes of the reconstituted Committee from 20th September 1934, and, perhaps most useful of all, a subset of words discussed by the Committee." --NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution, a wonderful sitcom about a committee of the great and the good poet laureate Robert Bridges, playwright George Bernard Shaw, critic Lord David Cecil, art historian Kenneth Clark, novelist Rose Macaulay - tying themselves in knots trying to lay down standard pronunciation of words in English.
