"Mrs Allen was one of that numerous class of females whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like them well enough to marry them."
Jane Austen at her bitchiest. And I would say of Madeleine Bunting that she is one of that numerous class of Guardian writers whose columns can raise no other emotion than surprise . . . Okay, it's a couple of centuries on and our sentences are shorter and ruder. They get paid for that?
Mush Brain has now gone wild and pantheist. A change from doing PR for theocrats I suppose and I'm all for feeding the birds, making the flowers grow and going for long walks - as are millions of my compatriots. I would say such activities are part of my spiritual well being. But it's not a startlingly new phenomenon (a hallmark of Mush Brain is that she always thinks what she read last week is the first barricade erected for the next revolution).
I had always thought the Guardian employed Mush Brain because she had some hold over one of the powerful there or possibly out of charity. But no, she turns up in other places as well, including, to my indignation, Radio 4.
Last night I was drifting off to the Morphean strains of Something Understood. This programme is an anthology of readings and songs on some theme and is done in dreamy Ovaltine voices so we bourgeoisie can fall asleep contented. It's for those of us who aren't hard enough to stay up for the Shipping Forecast (which is on past midnight). But I was jerked awake by realising that MB was presenting it and the subject was humanity's relations to the wild. She introduced a song by Dick "Go-han".
Dick Gaughan is a great folk singer and song writer. But, you silly Sassenach, you pronounce his name like this:-
Make a hard "G" sound. Then hawk, spit and clear your throat until you get to the "n" at the end.
So when I heard her say "Go-han" I thought, ah, the Scots will be really pissed off with her, so I dropped off and snored happily the rest of the night.
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