Why we crave a good speech
I’ve spent much of the past few weeks thinking about language. Partly because I’ve lately swapped contemporary writers for classical works, such as Tolstoy’s tomes, out of a craving for the idiosyncrasies modern language has long shed. It is also partly because of King Charles’s speeches on his recent state visit to the US, which were filled with references to historic events, quotations from Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare and the elegance of making a subtle dig covertly, under the guise of flatter...
