Have You Eaten Grandma?
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Have You Eaten Grandma?
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Narrated by:
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Gyles Brandreth
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By:
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Gyles Brandreth
About this listen
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Have You Eaten Grandma? written and read by Gyles Brandreth.
'Best thing ever, laugh-a-lot, spanning everything. Great book, I'm loving this' Chris Evans, BBC Radio 2
It can be much harder than it seems; commas, colons, semi-colons and even apostrophes can drive us all mad at times, but it riles no one more than the longest-serving resident of Countdown's Dictionary Corner, grammar guru Gyles Brandreth.
In this brilliantly funny tirade and guide, Gyles anatomizes the linguistic horrors of our times, tells us where we've been going wrong (and why) and shows us how, in future, we can get it right every time. Is 'alright' all right? You'll find out right here. From dangling clauses to gerunds, you'll also discover why Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
In Have You Eaten Grandma? he waxes lyrical about the importance of language as, after all, it is what we use to define ourselves and, ultimately, is what makes us human.
And why not check out the Have You Eaten Grandma? podcast, starring Gyles and a host of other grammar and linguisitic lovers and experts
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Very Good Listen
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For the first half of the book I was dead right.
Brandreth presents an accessible and entertaining guide to the rules of grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. As you'd expect, he includes many witty, sometimes risqué and often memorable examples with some laugh out loud moments. All read with Brandreth's characteristic gusto. Enjoyable stuff.
Unfortunately, the second half is simply a series of uninspiring and not particularly helpful lists: American alternatives to British Words; American Spellings; Jargon words Brandreth doesn't like; Technology words... It goes on forever. Rapidly delivered, many of these lists don't really work well without seeing the printed word. It's essentially padding - the sort of lightweight content Brandreth can trot out over breakfast when he realises he's far short of his word count.
Such a shame and with GB's name on the cover, it can only be described as a disappointing missed opportunity.
Disappointing
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Brandreth narrates this himself, adding his own distinctive voice to the already rather literary topic. He covers various areas of the English language, and adds little stories, tips, jokes and a lot of humour to what could be quite a dry tome.
I laughed aloud listening to this in Asda, well, snorted actually, but let's not dwell on that one. A line about diarrhea if I remember rightly. For 90% of the running length, this was a pleasure to listen to.
Lots of the time I was nodding along, smiling at the asides and jokey material. But as an audiobook, sometimes the format did let the book down - long, long (40 minute long chapters!) lists going through the alphabet, a list of words in Cockney Rhyming Slang for example. If reading the paper version (or Kindle), you might scan through, but this was not as easy to do with the Audible.
I also found, because of the nature of the book, when Brandreth discusses the rules of punctuation and grammar, I found it very hard to concentrate and take it all in, with descriptions and examples, it moved too quickly and didn't give me time to digest and internalise what was being said before it moved on. On paper, I could re-read and slow it all down (not the same as slowing an audiobook's speed).
So, while I loved the book, and found it both entertaining and informative, the format may not be for everyone. With hindsight, I would have got a little more from this if reading on a screen or on paper, though I liked the narrator immensely, he's witty and reassuringly sensible about his grammar, if incredibly picky (my own standards I now look at as much less lofty than I thought just a few days ago!).
For anyone interested in improving their knowledge of the rules of grammar while also having to hide a few chortles.
With thanks to Nudge Books for providing a sample Audible copy.
Very funny but hard to follow in this format
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A very good book
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Grammar for adults!!
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