My 2010 Bookshelf

As expected, the end of my thrice weekly commute to Nowheresville in January meant that I only read 127 books this year compared to last year's 182. It is still a pretty impressive total compared to that of most other people, I suspect. When I add a book to my list, I will star it if I think might make my top five; this year, the long list included seven books. I was tempted to pick the five whose titles start with the definite article, for feng shui purposes, but my non-articled #2 choice was always going to make the top five. Here, then, are my top five books of 2010:

1. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. I waited for ages for this book about the trials and tribulations of the staff of a fictional (and ailing) international newspaper in Rome to come out but it was worth the wait. Each chapter tells the story of a different staff member of the paper, from investigative reporter to editor-in-chief (as well as a loyal reader), some chapters focus more on the character's personal life than his or her job and others involve repeat appearances from characters we've already met. Because I am a pedant and a language geek, my favourite chapter was that of the corrections editor.)
2. New York by Edward Rutherfurd. The size of this book, particularly in hardback form, predisposed me to dislike it but how could I hate a book about my favourite city? I enjoyed Rutherfurd's earlier tome London too but New York was much better.
3. The Lessons by Naomi Alderman. A tale of Oxford students in the mid-'90s and more specifically, the loner narrator's friendship with the charismatic but troubled Mark Winters. Although it was the other half of Oxbridge and set ten years earlier it took me back to my university days and unusually for a "loser" narrator, he didn't irritate me too much. 
4. The Privileges by Jonathan Dee. Another book for which I had a long library wait (although not as long as Jonathan Franzen's Freedom) and another New York book. Dee's story of a young, loved-up New York couple who marry soon after graduating college and then begin to play out their charmed lives reminded me a lot of Jay McInerney's Brightness Falls and The Good Life.
5. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. As with Monsters on my film list, I considered leaving this book off my list of top five books because I only finished reading it recently. The romance between average Joe, Lenny, and gorgeous, young Eunice in the scarily recognisable, very-near future is told through the medium of his diary entries and her instant messenger chat logs. This is the kind of sci-fi I like.

The two that didn't quite make the final cut? The Last Weekend by Blake Morrison and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I enjoyed both but each had its own series of niggles that, well, niggled me. As for the rest of the books I read this year, here is the full list:

• No Laughing Matter--Angus Wilson
• Her Fearful Symmetry--Audrey Niffenegger
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest--Stieg Larsson
• Too Much Happiness--Alice Munro
• Paths of Glory--Jeffrey Archer
• The Ice Age--Margaret Drabble
• The Lady in the Tower--Alison Weir
• A Reliable Wife--Robert Goolrick
• Wicked Whispers--Jessica Callan
• The Message--Julie Highmore
• The Seventh Son--Reay Tannahill
• Tulip Fever--Deborah Moggach
• When Will There Be Good News--Kate Atkinson
• Crazy As Chocolate--Elisabeth Hyde
• New York--Edward Rutherfurd
• Think! Before It's Too Late--Edward De Bono
• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid--Bill Bryson
• Leviathan--Paul Auster
• The Opposite of Love--Julie Buxbaum
• Washington DC--Gore Vidal
• The Decisive Moment--Jonah Lehrer
• The Child in Time--Ian McEwan
• Spoiled--Caitlin Macy
• Shutter Island--Dennis Lehane
• Chinese Takeout--Arthur Nersesian
• Brooklyn--Colm Toibin
• Love and Obstacles--Aleksandar Hemon
• The Emperor's New Drugs--Irving Kirsch
• One Fifth Avenue--Candace Bushnell
• Suite Francaise--Irene Nemirovsky
• The Shakespeare Curse--JL Carrell
• The Rehearsal--Eleanor Catton
• The Ice Age --Kirsten Reed
• Success-Martin Amis
• Vagueness--Kees van Deemter
• The Old Men at the Zoo--Angus Wilson
• Must You Go?--Antonia Fraser
• London--Edward Rutherfurd
• Little Gods--Anna Richards
• Coronado--Dennis Lehane
• Labyrinth--Kate Mosse
• House Rules--Jodi Picoult
• On the Beach--Neville Shute
• Election--Tom Perrotta
• The Brain Changes Itself--Norman Doidge
• American Adulterer--Jed Mercurio
• To Kill a Mockingbird--Harper Lee
• The Hucksters--Frederick Wakeman Sr
• Money--Martin Amis
• Katherine Swynford--Alison Weir
• The Lessons--Naomi Alderman
• It's Only a Movie--Mark Kermode
• Unseen Academicals--Terry Pratchett
• The Last Weekend--Blake Morrison
• The Invisible Gorilla--Christopher Chabris & Dan Simon
• East of Islington--Sam Taylor
• 1599: A year in the life of William Shakespeare--James Shapiro
• The Imperfectionists--Tom Rachman
• The Upside of Irrationality--Dan Ariely
• Wonder Boys--Michael Chabon
• The Collaborator--Gerald Seymour
• Imperial Bedrooms--Bret Easton Ellis
• Bonk--Mary Roach
• Meltdown--Ben Elton
• This Is Your Brain on Music--Daniel Levitin
• Ellis Island--Kate Kerrigan
• The Big Short--Michael Lewis
• Micka--Frances Kay
• Girl in Translation--Jean Kwok
• The Group--Mary McCarthy
• Gone for Good--Harlan Coben
• The Almost Moon--Alice Sebold
• The Poison Tree--Erin Kelly
• The Slap--Christos Tsiolkas
• Long Lost--Harlan Coben
• Hold Tight--Harlan Coben
• Picture Perfect--Jodi Picoult
• The Steep Approach to Garbadale--Iain Banks
• Eat, Pray, Love--Elizabeth Gilbert
• Play Dead--Harlan Coben
• Just One Look--Harlan Coben
• The Innocent--Harlan Coben
• Promise Me--Harlan Coben
• More Sex Is Safe Sex--Stephen Langsburg
• Waiting for Columbus--Thomas Trofimuk
• The Red Queen--Philippa Gregory
• Katherine the Queen--Linda Porter
• A Murderous Procession--Ariana Franklin
• The King of Madison Avenue--Kenneth Roman
• The Privileges--Jonathan Dee
• Caught--Harlan Coben
• Neverwhere--Neil Gaiman
• The Rational Optimist--Matt Ridley
• A Vision of Loveliness--Louise Levene
• Darkest Secret--Harlan Coben
• The Captive Queen--Alison Weir
• 1536--Suzannah Lipscomb
• E Squared--Matt Beaumont
• Tamara Drewe--Posy Simmonds
• The Facebook Effect--David Kirkpatrick
• What the Dog Saw--Malcolm Gladwell
• Intuition--David Myers
• Accidental Billionaires--Ben Mezrich
• Cheerful Money--Tad Friend
• The Woods--Harlan Coben
• The Soloist--Steve Lopez
• GB84--David Peace
• Holidays on Ice--David Sedaris
• Gemma Bovery--Posy Simmonds
• Innocent--Scott Turow
• Bouquet of Barbed Wire--Andrea Newman
• The Help--Kathryn Stockett
• Jump!--Jilly Cooper
• The Three Marriages--David Whyte
• Fall of Giants--Ken Follett
• Freedom--Jonathan Franzen
• The Confession--John Grisham
• And Thereby Hangs a Tale--Jeffrey Archer
• Super Sad True Love Story--Gary Shteyngart
• Full Dark, No Stars--Stephen King
• The Other Family--Joanna Trollope
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe--Douglas Adams
• Life, the Universe and Everything--Douglas Adams
• So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish--Douglas Adams
• One Day--David Nicholls
• Heartstone--CJ Sansom
• The Drunkard's Walk--Leonard Mlodinow

Film 2010

I didn't quite make it to a century of movies this year but 95 isn't too bad, although slightly down from last year's 114. It was still pretty tough choosing my top five--especially when it came to narrowing down from seven to five.

1. The Social Network (not just because Andrew Garfield's hot; no, this was the only film this year where I came out wishing it lasted longer than its two hours. Great script, great cast, great film.)
2. Inception (the only film on the list I saw more than once, the second time, at the BFI IMAX, being much better than the second. Clever, thought-provoking and down-right impressive.)
3. Never Let Me Go (not just because Andrew Garfield's hot. I loved the book and was worried what would become of the film but Garfield and Carey Mulligan's acting was brilliant and Mark Romanek really captured the mood of the book. Heart-breaking and beautiful.) 
4. Black Swan (when this film finished at the London Film Festival, I was practically twitching. In a word, this movie is intense but that doesn't really cover it. Natalie Portman is scary and good.)
5. Monsters (I don't like to place movies from December in my list of the year's top films as I think it takes at least two months for me to decide whether or not it was a good film or a great film but I very much enjoyed Monsters. After I click "publish post" I may decide I should have selected The Kids Are All Right (my #6) instead.)

Honourable mention: Un Prophète. For cultural reasons, I should include at least one foreign-language film and this was definitely the best I saw this year (The Secret in Their Eyes was also good).

Here is the full list of movies I watched this year:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Nowhere Boy
• Exam
• State of Play
• Up in the Air
• The Road
• Un Prophète
• Brothers
• Precious 
• Edge of Darkness
• District 9 (DVD)
• The Book of Eli
• A Single Man
• Invictus
• Crazy Heart
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
• Shutter Island
• Green Zone
• Alice in Wonderland
• The Blind Side
• Les Diaboliques
• The Hustler
• Io Sono L'amore
• Rollerball (DVD)
• Kick-Ass 
• The Island (DVD)
• Halloween
• The Ghost
• Cemetery Junction
• Cabaret
• The Disappearance of Alice Creed
• L'avventura (DVD)
• They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (DVD)
• Four Lions
• Wall Street (DVD)
• The Verdict
• The Verdict (DVD)
• Robin Hood
• Don't Look Now (DVD)
• The Graduate (DVD)
• The Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans
• Suspicion (DVD)
• The Bourne Ultimatum (DVD)
• The African Queen
• A Bout de Souffle (DVD)
• The Sentinel (DVD)
• Please Give 
• L'arnacoeur
• Kes
• Daybreakers (DVD)
• Wonder Boys (DVD)
• Le Concert
• The Damned United (TV)
• Inception
• Eastern Promises (TV)
• Leaving
• Hard Candy (DVD)
• Gainsbourg
• Toy Story 3
• Secretary (DVD)
• Spellbound (1945) (DVD)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire
• The Secret in Their Eyes
• Salt
• No Way Out (TV)
• Wild Blue Yonder
• Scott Pilgrim vs the World
• Crime d'Amour 
• The Wicker Man (DVD)
• Tamara Drewe 
• Notes on a Scandal (TV)
• Winter's Bone
• The Girl in the Park (TV)
• The Town
• Buried
• Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
• The Social Network
• Never Let Me Go
• Conviction
• Les Petits Mouchoirs
• Blue Valentine
• Black Swan
• Brighton Rock (2010)
• The Kids Are All Right
• Agora (TV)
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
• The American
• Made in Dagenham
• Monsters
• Love and Other Drugs
• Catfish
• The Lion in Winter (DVD)
• Whip It (DVD)
• Greenberg (DVD)
• The Way Back
• Black Death (DVD)

My Soundtrack of 2010

It's that time of year when I--along with everyone else--attempt to sum up a year of culcha in form of "top X Y of the year" (in my case x being five and y being songs, movies and books). The music post has always seemed most pointless to me, not because I don't like listening to music but because most of the music I rarely listen to new releases. Perhaps I'd be better off doing "top five purchases of 2010" (my H&M trench, Mitzy and my Canon S95 camera would definitely feature) or "top five leaps of 2010" (which could include the one on the left at One New Change).

I added 77 new songs to iTunes with a 2010 release date but as I've explained before, this isn't really representative of the way I listen to music because it contains five albums and only one of these contains more than two tracks that I listen to on a regular basis. Regardless, here are my top five:

1. Paradise Circus--Massive Attack
2. Runaway--The National
3. Mace Spray--The Jezabels
4. Mediterranea--Duran Duran (this was part of Apple's "12 Days of Christmas" free downloads app and I only got it yesterday and have only listened to it a couple of times; Rio it ain't but I'd still rather listen to Simon Le Bon than most other 2010 releases)
5. Love the Way You Lie--Eminem feat. Rhianna (token pop entry)

Needless to say, only Paradise Circus makes it into my all-time (since 2006) 200 top most played--and only at #198...

The Blonde Leading the Blonde

Four days of country life in The Shire was all it took for me to start craving city life again (actually, I was mainly getting fed up of wearing my snow boots and shivering in my autumn-/spring-weight coat). Today, then, after a morning gym trip, we drove back in to the Big Smoke. We had lunch at Bill's, the newly opened Covent Garden branch of a Sussex purveyor of posh groceries, breakfast and brunch I visited a few times while going out with The Ex, who was from those parts. The London branch was just bustling enough but with no queues today and my BLT (minus the T) was very tasty. It's a great place for a quick breakfast or lunch, afternoon tea or post-theatre pudding; the service was a little erratic but not bad given that there were only two waitresses for the whole place.

Then it was theatre time. We had tickets for Legally Blonde, which I've been keen on seeing since its rave reviews earlier in the year. The movie version was one of my "comfort films" that I've watched many a time when I wanted something funny and frothy and not requiring too much in the way of brainpower. Unfortunately, Sheridan Smith, the star, was replaced by her alternate today, but she was still good, as was Denise van Outen. I did enjoy the musical but while the constant high-pitched interjections of, "like, no way, OMG!" from many of the female characters in the movie tended to be brief enough not to cause too much disruption, in the musical, they formed the basis of too many of the songs. Laughs were had but there weren't any standout songs (not that that stopped Papa buying the soundtrack).

The Bro had to rush back to The Shire to meet up with various of his school friends but the rest of us managed some Christmas shopping before dinner at Le Caprice. In my search for the best burger in London, Le Caprice scored pretty highly -- the meat was perfectly medium rare, as requested, and the pickle and other accompaniments came on the side, as requested. My starter, pumpkin tortelloni with parmesan, was also delicious and a small enough portion for me to manage the burger too (although not a pudding). 

How to Survive Bicester Village on Boxing Day

I go to Bicester Village rarely enough for it to sound tempting when someone suggests we go; after all, they have a lot of my favourite shops, including Mulberry, French Connection and Ted Baker, and you can, occasionally, get a great bargain. On the other hand, finding said bargains takes a lot of hunting and the place is usually rammed at weekends even outside the festive season.

Today, it was hellish. We only live one motorway junction away and got to the Bicester junction very quickly but it then took us an hour to travel the last two miles and another thirty minutes to find a parking space. Once we were there, the shops were so busy that I didn't really have the energy to shop or to try things on and I left empty handed (£600 instead of £750 for an oak Mulberry Alexa is not a bad bargain but far more than I would consider spending on that particular bag).

In short, Bicester Village should be avoided between Christmas and New Year--especially on Boxing Day. But if you must go, here are some tips for reducing the pain:

1. Don't go on Boxing Day at all. According to Bicester Village staff, the place is inexplicably quiet on Christmas Eve and the pre- and post-Christmas stock is the same anyway. Today was, unfortunately, the only day we could go.
2. Don't bring anyone with you unless they genuinely want to shop too. They will be miserable and they will make other shoppers' lives more difficult (including yours) by clogging up the narrow shop aisles as they hang around waiting for their companions. 
3. Don't bring anyone or anything that needs carrying/towing or that needs your constant attention (babies, dogs, small children and, especially, pushchairs).
4. Don't go in search of specific items; the crowds will make it near impossible to find them and (where appropriate) to try them on.
5. Don't go to Gucci, Ugg or Ralph Lauren unless you're fairly sure you'll be able to buy something; you'll have to wait in a freezing queue for an awful long time.
6. Don't dawdle. This is not the time for window shopping, standing around chatting in shops or otherwise idling.
7. Don't bring your car. Getting in and parking are nightmarish; get the bus or train instead, if possible.
8. If you do drive, do not eat your lunch in your car after you've finished your shopping. This is incredibly frustrating for those who have been waiting for a parking space for far longer than planned.

A White Christmas

It's been the first Christmas I've spent in the UK since 2004 (we were in Boston in 2005 and in Cannes every year since then) and has certainly been a chilly one. Papa and I were supposed to go on a run through Christchurch Meadow this morning but he wasn't feeling well and, in any case, we discovered when we went for a walk later on most of the gates into the meadow were locked.

Despite the bright sunshine, there weren't very many fellow walkers but the ducks and geese were very pleased to see us. Not being Cannes also meant not being forced to swim in cold waters on Christmas Day -- the Cherwell was, in any case, frozen over. In all the excitement, I forgot to do a Christmas Day leap, though. Error.

Catfish on the Table

I hadn't heard much about Catfish before I saw the movie this afternoon, other than that it was a documentary (or mockumentary?) based around an online relationship. I vaguely remembered that the said relationship was between the brother of one of the directors and a young girl and so my assumption was that the relationship was somehow inappropriate, which left me wondering why the protagonist agreed to let his brother film it. Anyway, Catfish wasn't at all what I expected. It was a funny film in both senses of the word and thoroughly engrossing, at least until the last 15 minutes or so when it felt like it had peaked too soon and lost too much momentum.

It's difficult to describe the film well without ruining its twists and turns. Nev Schulman is a dance photographer and after one of his photographs is printed in a newspaper, he receives a package from Abby, an eight-year-old girl and painter who has reproduced his photo as an oil painting. Nev's brother Ariel and friend Henry Joost think there could be a story to tell in this and over a period of several months, they document Nev's growing friendship with Abby and, later, Abby's family, including her mother Angela, brother and step-sister Megan. They all Facebook friend one another and after checking out Megan's photos and exchanging a series of racy emails and texts with her, Nev finds himself falling for her.

All, of course, is not what it seems and indeed, the strange family that Nev has allowed into his life is not at all what they seem and soon, something prompts Nev and the gang to go on a road trip to Michigan to meet them all in person. The dénouement initially pans out quite well but then, as I said, the film loses its way. There has also been a lot of discussion about whether Catfish is really a documentary or whether parts (or more) of it were fabricated or manipulated and whether, if it is real, any of the people portrayed were exploited for the sake of the film. I don't think it matters, from the point of view of cinematic enjoyment, whether or not Catfish is as realistic as it purports to be. The plot moved fast enough to keep me engaged and the audience at the Curzon in Soho laughed loudly and often but it was also thought-provoking; and that is often enough for me.

Winter, Er, Wonderland II

It wasn't snowing this morning and while there were a good few inches of slush on the streets of NoMaRo, I decided this was going to be my best offer for a run and headed out into the cold. Running through snow, rather like running on a sandy beach, must be good for you, making your legs work harder than usual, unless of course you slip over on the treacherous ice and break an ankle; then it's not so good.

Hyde Park in the snow

I expected to be the only runner in Hyde Park but there were several other brave souls as well as many walkers and assorted frolickers and photographers. It was hard work running round the park but I feel much better for it, even if my feet are still chilly, despite a long, hot shower.

Cold statues at the Albert Memorial

Winter, Er, Wonderland

A prodigious amount of snow has fallen on London Town today. It was quite pretty earlier but is now mainly grey or black slush and has also thrown off my running schedule, so much so that I'm considering going to a gym. Boo. On the other hand, if the weather agrees to improve by Thursday so that my flight to Cannes is unaffected, I will promise not to complain about it any more. Even though I'm already wintered out.

Regent's Park did look lovely, although the herons, geese and squirrels were rather less impressed. Regent Street, meanwhile, was slightly quieter than I expected, presumably because fewer people ventured out into the city centre. I remind myself that I am lucky to have been able to go shopping at all today, given that my parents, who live on a very steep hill in The Shire, were pretty much snowed in.

The inclement weather clearly didn't cramp my style too much either as while waiting by the entrance of the Anthropologie changing rooms for an assistant to bring me a top in a different size, I was mistaken for an Anthropologie sales assistant by four separate customers. I took it as a compliment; if I was allowed to have a staff discount, I might even have bought the top. The real staff members, of course, were far too busy worrying about the fact that there was a summer dress without a jacket over it in the shop window; sackable offence, I think.

How to Buy Girly Gifts for Women of Uncertain Ages

Spending an hour or two in Selfridges buying Christmas presents on behalf of other people is becoming as much of a festive tradition for me as...well, it's becoming my first festive tradition. This was the third year running that Papa dispatched me to Selfridges to buy six presents (about £15 each) for various of his female PAs/administrators (age 20-ish to 50-odd), most of whom I haven't met.

C/wise from top left: Purple Tea for One mug (£12); Ollie & Nic make-up bag (£15); Philosophy Silent Night shower gel (£13); Orla Kiely notebook (£15); I Love Your Style book (£14); Crisp Champagne candle in tin (£15)

There wasn't a 50-minute time limit this year and I took the liberty of visiting Liberty and Anthropologie as well as Selfridges but then I had the added challenge of not repeating myself from last year or the year before. Everything I bought was £15 or under and although there was some degree of repetition from previous years (this wasn't the first year a candle was included), the presents were all suitably different from one another in style and appearance. Hopefully, all tastes will be catered for.

After three years of this anonymous gift buying, I've picked up a few tactics for choosing presents that will be generally pleasing to women whom you don't know well--or even to those you don't know at all.

1. Buy your presents from quality shops. I shop at M&S and Accessorize but I wouldn't buy these anonymous-£15 presents from either of these shops. It's better to buy something simpler from a classy department store like Liberty or Selfridges than a more extravagant gift from a less special shop. Equally, it's hard to find something that isn't lovely in Anthropologie (jewellery, candles and pretty kitchenware are all good bets for £15).
2. Give your gifts an upgrade with pretty packaging and wrapping paper. An ordinary mug can look a lot more thoughtful when given the Anthropologie treatment--wrapped in colourful tissue paper and tied with ribbons. Style definitely trumps substance.
3. Choose presents that suggest luxury. A candle with "Champagne" in its name implies opulence, which can counteract a gift's lack of personalisation.  
4. American and hard-to-get-hold-of brands seem more interesting than something you can buy in any branch of Boots. Philosophy and Fresh trump Sanctuary Spa and Origins; gift packs of beauty products from Boots should be avoided. Don't buy any beauty product that suggests weight loss, wrinkles or cellulite.
5. Jewellery (although not pierced earrings unless you know the recipient has pierced ears), purses and other accessories are good ideas--it's hard to go too far wrong with something that has a little bit of sparkle in it even if you don't know the recipient's taste. Clothes of any kind are best avoided, unless you are sure you know the size.
6. If you can't make it to the shops, you might try browsing the following online stores for inspiration: Austique, Mercer & Wells, Do, Ollie & Nic, Magma and Our Shop.

Whither English?

The British Library has been doing well with its exhibitions of late; last year's Henry VIII-fest was good and I enjoyed Magnificent Maps earlier this year, although I could have done with a longer visit (Strange Maps does not satisfy all of my cartophilic needs). And now they have an exhibition called Evolving English, for which I've been waiting eagerly for several weeks.

Susie Dent, Peter Gilliver, Vicky Coren,
Philip Gooden & Simon Heffer

Alongside the exhibition, the BL are running a series of talks and events and today, I attended the English Language Question Time, along with a couple of friends. On the panel were: Susie Dent (of Countdown and OED fame), Peter Gilliver (of the OED), Philip Gooden (who has written books about the English language), and Simon Heffer (Telegraph hack and author of the Torygraph's style guide). Vicky Coren (whom I met over 10 years ago when she came to do a small session about feature writing with a few girls from my class) was chairing the discussion.

We had the opportunity to submit questions for the panel in advance but because I forgot I was going to the event until late last night, I failed to do this. As the average age of the audience was about 75, several questions in, I was worried that the whole 90 minutes were going to be filled with complaints about the shocking state of the English language today from Disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells and colleagues. "Isn't it very annoying that everyone pronounces KILometre as kilOMeter?" demanded one man, who was really quite angry. "Why do people insist on overusing absolutely when a simple "yes" or "I agree" will do?" was another. "Can the panel pronounce the words consume, presume and assume?" (This last question concerned the "dreadful" pronunciation of assume as aSHOOM rather than assYOOM.)

The OED faction of the panel emphasised that their role is to describe the language, not to prescribe (preshcribe?), although the questioners received more support from Heffer. Fortunately, however, more interesting questions were selected:

• Should English be simplified for non-native speakers and if so how? (Dent was working on a German dictionary at the time of the German spelling reforms and said although simplifying English spelling would help learners, she was against doing so because you would lose some of the history and richness.)
• Will txt spk encroach on English to further domains and is this a bad thing? (Dent pointed out an example of a 19th century postcard with the abbreviation "gr8" for great, suggesting that such abbreviations are not just a recent innovation; no once mentioned this but the use of the ampersand for and does the same trick and no one would blame the iPhone for that).
• Do the panel think Blair and Cameron had de-poshing elocution lessons (delocution?) to try to convince people they were down with the kids (with their t-dropping and glottalising, for example)?.
• Which features of the panel's own idiolects draw most disapproval? (Most of them thought their language was too long-winded and too pedantic; Coren defended a Grauniad sub-editor, who was derided at his leaving do for his overly pedantic emails but Coren came down in his favour, saying that his job required it.)
• Which examples of "management speak" most irritate the panel? (Heffer hates "to grow a business"; Gooden doesn't like "wake-up call" or "limited edition"; and Dent dislikes verbing ("bandaiding" or "solutioning," for example), although she added that Keats was a common culprit.)

Personally, I would have enjoyed the event more if each panelist had spoken about one aspect of contemporary English for ten minutes, followed by 20 minutes of questions from the chair and discussion, and then, in the final half-hour, questions from the audience. If the audience had been populated with current or former linguistics students or researchers and/or readers of Language Log, the general Q&A format would have entertained me more. It was still an interesting event, however, even if the questions weren't as diverse or original as I would have liked.

Afterwards, we went into the exhibition but only had time for a quick scan of the exhibits. I will definitely be back, not least because I need to record myself reading Mr Tickle for posterity; after all, the voices of generic, 20-something, Southern Standard British English girls are bound to be in short supply...