605: Voices: A Treat for MY Ears

Many a time and oft I have complained in my usual pedantic style about the decline of standards in the use of English - for example, HERE.

As an antidote, and with my grateful thanks for the power of the Internet, here, a couple of examples of the sort of spoken English that is seldom heard indeed these days, more the pity.

Truly a joy to my ears.

First an amusing anecdote from the highly-talented novelist and biographer, Nancy Mitford:

And to follow, the velvety though frail voice of  Virginia Woolf, recorded in 1937:

How I wish I could hear voices like these today.

Compare and contrast with e.g. Russell Brand or Jonathan Ross or that awful female continuity announcer (anaancah?) on what she calls 'BayBaySayToe'. Credit where it's due: Stephen Fry can speak properly, but the problems lie elsewhere - for example the cretins he employs on his television programme, in particular that tit in the lumberjack shirt, but also all those horrible socialist so-called comedians

I was born too late, much too late.

Until the next time.