If you are of the opinion that the newspaper headline “the economy shrank steeper than expected” isn’t just grammatically incorrect but, as Simon Heffer shrieks, a positively “barbaric” crime against language, then the journalist-turned-grammarian’s latest microscopic journey into the English language is required reading. “Steeper” should, of course, be replaced by “more steeply”, and while, initially, Simply English – a dictionary-style reference book of correct usage – has the air of a particularly annoying school lesson, there is a cumulative effect. Thankfully, Heffer’s point isn’t that language can’t evolve. Instead he repeatedly asks that it remains simple and free of pomposity. “Poor stylists,” he writes in the “Anglo-Saxon words” entry, “cannot bear to use walk… when they may use perambulate.”
Although sometimes Heffer is plain wrong – people in the Middle East are not going to call themselves Arabians rather than Arabs any time soon – Simply English is much more readable than a reference book has any right to be. Referring to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as “a prime work of modern literature”, he then calls JK Rowling out for using the wrong version of bated in “bated breath”. Certainly, the reviewer enters into a critique of his work with some trepidation. So – just to set Heffer’s teeth on edge – let’s hope he doesn’t furiously decimate this one, as basically Simply English is rather good.
