As a reader I love words and Stephen Fry brings them alive in surprising ways, qwerty, sex, gender equality he covers it all in series 3 ( )

This third series over the course of four episodes covers:

1. The QWERTY keyboard: its origins, its influence on English and communication, potential replacements, and its likely future.
2. The influence of an individual's sex on how they speak
3. The weirdness that comes in contradiction
4. The potential future of the English language; what will English look like in 200 years?

As ever, Fry is just as delightful as his subject. ( )

Fry's English Delight, Series Three contains these episodes from the radio show:

'The Trial of Qwerty': I've read about the reason typewriter and computer keyboards are not in alphabetical order. I will not feel the same way about that after listening to this. (By the way, young readers, I learned to type on manual typewriters in the late 1960s. The description of raised typewriter keys jammed together that's given in this episode is accurate. Separating them again was annoying and led to smudges on one's fingertips.)

'He Said, She Said' -- Quite funny, especially the translations of what he and she said. I remember when we spoke and wrote about the male and female sexes rather than genders.

'Accentuate the Negative' -- This one starts with dialogue from the classic argument skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus and includes other bits from classic comedy duos, along with explanations. Good listening!

'Future Conditional' -- I hadn't realized that enough other countries had adopted and adapted the English language for there to be more than 'British English' and 'American English'. I found this the least interesting episode of the four, but by no means dull.

This series was so enjoyable that I'm hoping my local library has, or will get, more. ( )