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Jon Sparks's avatar

You’ve made a great case for it and I’ll be on the lookout for a copy now.

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Jacqueline Saville's avatar

Good luck! Although if you’re happy with an ebook then it’s readily available. I knew it would be something I’d want to flick back through and I just can’t manage to navigate ebooks in the same way as a paperback.

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Maria (Linnesby essays)'s avatar

Enjoyed reading this so much! Especially the discussion of the accents — this is the best argument I have ever heard for spelling one out, which usually I find frustrating..

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Jacqueline Saville's avatar

Thanks. Interestingly I wrote a couple of posts on my old blog a decade or so ago about accents in writing and I think I have at least partially changed my mind. I have begun to understand reasons why it might be, if not necessary then perhaps an enhancement. I may well come back to the theme of accents and dialect soon. I still think you have to have someone’s starting accent in mind when you spell it out, but since Priestley grew up a few miles from where I did he probably spelt it more or less for me :-)

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Maria (Linnesby essays)'s avatar

I'd enjoy reading that! You know, I was thinking as I replied earlier that one of the first times I ever saw an accent/dialect spelled out was as a little kid reading The Secret Garden, and it didn't bother me there at all —I enjoyed it. That's maybe in vaguely the same neck of the woods? To this day I have no idea of how the words would sound in real life.

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Jacqueline Saville's avatar

Oh good grief don’t get me started on the Secret Garden! From memory that’s set in North Yorkshire but yes not wildly dissimilar. That is the book that turned me against the use of accents and dialect in writing. Right, I’m adding this to my list of posts I want to write this autumn :-)

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Maria (Linnesby essays)'s avatar

Totally intrigued now! I still remember all of the dialect in the novel. Look forward to reading the post.

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Deborah Vass's avatar

What a wonderful review and now Ilong to read it! I loved Priestley and so this will be a treat.

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Jacqueline Saville's avatar

I hope you get hold of a copy quicker than I did! Actually if you use Amazon it’s probably not that difficult but I like to make life harder for myself :-)

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Deborah Vass's avatar

I have just found an old copy of Bright Day on my shelf, which I have never read, so thank you for the nudge! It might keep me going in the meantime:)

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Jacqueline Saville's avatar

I got Bright Day at the same time but haven’t got round to reading it yet, I’m having a PG Wodehouse binge at the moment

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