Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Telling It Like It Is

Episode 3 of 5

Freya Johnston reflects on how the great dictionary writer Samuel Johnson's direct approach to language and life still influences our everyday use of English today.

Four contemporary writers reflect on the mighty linguistic shadow left by the compiler of the first great dictionary of the English language, Samuel Johnson. Johnson's monumental Dictionary set the standard; after Johnson had pronounced, English could never be the same again.

In this series four very different writers from across the world reflect on the Johnsonian linguistic heritage as it plays out in their own world and their own lives...

Freya Johnston, lecturer in English at St Anne's College Oxford and author of Samuel Johnson and the Art of Sinking 1709-1791, engages with the language Johnson used which still influences our every day use of English.

Producer: Marya Burgess

(repeat).

15 minutes

Broadcasts

  • Wed 16 Sep 2009 23:00
  • Tue 24 Aug 2010 23:00

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast