Fry's English Delight: Word Games

By: Stephen Fry

Narrated by: Stephen Fry

Is English an innately playful language? Are word games good for you? Do we divide into number and word players? And could Scrabble have been invented in any other language? In this special programme, Stephen examines many word games, and we’ll hear some familiar voices playing unfamiliar games - Sheila Dillon from 'The Food Programme' plays 'Font or Cheese' against miscellanist Ben Schott. Phill Juptitus talks about his personal word game habits, and we’ll remember the late Humphrey Lyttelton’s scurrilous account of Una Stubbs on 'I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue'. We’ll travel deep inside the mind of puzzle-setter Chris Maslanka and visit the Comedy Store in London to experience the lightning reflexes of some top word-athletes. Plus, we’ll examine an extraordinary claim - which the fashion for increasingly cryptic crosswords helped to defeat Hitler. Stephen Fry celebrates the fun side of the English language in this exclusive extended edition of a BBC Radio 4 special.

©2011 Stephen Fry (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Not Qualified to Give an Opinion

10/10 I understood about 10% of the words and Stephen Fry would put a sexy parrot on my head for saying so.

Word games

A brief but entertaining look into both the history and the application of word games. A fun listen, I hope they do more in this series.

More like NPR story

This was a fun listen and actually quite informative. Fry just has one of the best voices for audio.

Fun but short

Great listen - wish it were twice the length as I was thoroughly enjoying it and it came to an end.

As usual with performances involving Stephen Fry, the most interesting aspect was the mind of Stephen Fry.

word games are the only games that has ever interested me. This conversation included some information of interest about such topics as the history of various word games, the adaptability of various word games to different languages, and the relationship between skill at certain word games and other intellectual capabilities.
This is not a particularly deep or challenging read. It was a bit of fun listening to smart people talking to each other.

Wonderful!

Stephen Try is brilliamt! So smart and funny! Expect I will listen to this over and over.

Fascinating

English is the hardest language to speak, understand, write, and learn. This book not only explained English but also Polish, German, Italian, and many other languages. Stephen Fry is the interviewer, telling stories about his youth, and having a professional Lindquist do the teaching. If you like crosswords, I highly recommend this book.

Delighted

Interesting, very understandable and enjoying. Great audio to practice English listening. I recommended it very well.

boring

I expected a much funnier tale. I am glad it was relatively cheap. Boring, boring, boring!