Her Ladyship's Guide to the Queen's English (Ladyship's Guides) - Hardcover

Taggart, Caroline

3.96

115 ratings by Goodreads

9781905400935: Her Ladyship's Guide to the Queen's English (Ladyship's Guides)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1905400934 ISBN 13: 9781905400935

Publisher: National Trust Books, 2010

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

This is "Her Ladyship's" guide to speaking and writing better English. Wherever you are, whatever the company, good English will always stand you in good stead. The world's most important language has a number of difficult areas and pitfalls, and almost all of us have some area to improve, whether it's how to spell 'millennium', how to pronounce 'schedule' the English way (as opposed to the American way), or find the correct word for the 'toilet' when talking to bishops and barons. "Her Ladyship's" guide quickly takes you through the major problem areas. It covers: common mistakes in grammar (which will belie a lowly upbringing), common misspellings, commonly misused words, and the all-important choice of words and phrases to use in posh society with a pronunciation guide.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Author:

Lots of people worry about 'right' or 'posh' English; lots of others think that it is all pedantic nonsense and that a living language is constantly changing. I would place myself somewhere in the middle. I started out to write a 'posh' book, but soon decided that `talking posh' wasn't what mattered to me, or what was relevant to most people nowadays.

What I care about is what, for the purposes of this book, I call 'Elegant English'. I care about using words correctly - I just hate it when someone says they are disinterested when they mean uninterested, or when they say 'myself', when 'me' is the word they want. Despite the book's title, this isn't anything to do with class - it's to do with saying what you mean, as clearly and as neatly as you can. It means avoiding cliches, jargon and redundant expressions (next time you hear someone mention 'a safe haven', ask them what other sort of haven they know of).

The book isn't intended to be bossy; it's a friendly guide for those who do sometimes confuse similar words (and who doesn't?) and are not always confident when it comes to putting words on paper. And if you are old enough to remember Morecambe and Wise's 'beauty like what I have got', you might find the odd laugh in it too.

About the Author:

Caroline Taggart is the author of the best-selling I Used To Know That, A Classical Education and An Apple A Day and co-author of My Grammar and I (or should that be 'Me'?). She is also the editor of Writer's Market UK and Ireland, and visits literary festivals and writers' workshops around the country, advising aspiring authors on how to get published. She is not related to Her Ladyship, but shares many of her prejudices.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.