Richard Charkin, Jeffrey Archer, Professor Grayling
On 24 March, after reading about and listening to a podcast of Richard
Charkin, CEO of Macmillan, interviewing Jeffrey Archer about his new
book, I posted this comment at Mr Charkin's blog.
"I listened to the podcast out of curiosity about your voice which is
very attractive. The same can't be said of JA's voice. Sounds like a
super-salesman, which I suppose is what he is. Being an atheist, I
shall not be buying the book, and shall be surprised if it stays in
the charts for long, despite all the hype."
To which Richard Charkin, seen on the left of the photo, replied,
"Anne, Thanks for the compliment. I think you're right about JA. He is
a super-salesman. And so are many people. It's strange that it sounds
derogatory in Britsh English. In most languages it would be deemed a
good characteristic. I'm not sure whether one's religion or lack of it
should determine book purchases. Would you not buy a book about
Buddhism because you're not a Buddhist? I don't know how well the book
will sell in the variuous markets in which it's published. I'd be very
surprised it it sold as well as Archer's fiction but it will certainly
generate a lot of debate and interest which is the point."
In the past I've read several books about Buddhism which, of all the
world's religions, seems to have been the least harmful. But, although
I spent part of my childhood in a Church of England rectory, it didn't
take long to realise that all the major religions have done more harm
than good.
Yesterday there was an interesting article in the Daily Telegraph
headed, "We'd be better off without religion, argues A C Grayling, who
is a keynote speaker in a major debate on the futility of faith in
London tomorrow." [Tuesday 27 March]
In his piece for the Telegraph, Professor Grayling wrote -
"In Britain public funding has gone to Church of England and Roman
Catholic schools for a long time; now Muslims, Sikhs and Jews receive
public money for their own faith-based schools. BBC radio has steadily
increased the airtime available to religions other than the
established one.
Requests for extra protections in law, and alternatively for
exemptions from the law, to cater for religious sensitivities soon
followed these developments: criminalising offensive remarks about
religion, and allowing faith-based organisations to be exempt from
legislation outlawing discriminatory practices, are the main examples.
The Labour Government has been as concessive and inclusive as it can
be to all the religious groups in Britain. This is well intentioned
but misguided, as the example of faith-based schooling shows. If
children are ghettoised by religion from an early age, the result, as
seen in Northern Ireland, is disastrous."
A reader's comment
I've just picked up the following comment which I think refers to my
complaint about the colour of the text on Judy Astley's website.
"At 24 March, 2007, Jan Jones said...
Anne, if you hold down the CTRL button on the keyboard and roll the
wheel on the top of your mouse, you can increase or decrease the size
of text on the screen. It doesn't work for illustrations, alas."
Thanks for the suggestion, Jan, but although it works at Richard
Charkin's blog and my blog and your website, it doesn't work at the
site designed for Judy Astley by Mospace.
My usual method of enlarging text is to click on View and Text Size,
but Judy's text is not adjustable. Actually it wasn't the size of
Judy's text that concerned me but its colour. Still, nice of you to
make a helpful suggestion.
posted by Anne Weale @ 3:43 PM 4 comments links to this post
4 Comments:
At 27 March, 2007, Blogger Jan Jones said...
Most mysterious, Anne. Both methods work on Judy's site using
my PC.
At 27 March, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...
Yes, it's very odd, Jan. But have you been to Mospace which,
from where I'm sitting, seems to be in a state of suspended
animation.
At 27 March, 2007, Anonymous Anne Weale said...
Sorry, the second comment was from me, Bookworm.
At 27 March, 2007, Blogger Jan Jones said...
It does indeed. The faint text at the bottom says 'Site Under
Development' which I suppose explains it.
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