Talk:Desmond C. Derbyshire

Passing
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005257.html

A friend on language log pays tribute to the recent passing of this great linguist. 72.138.51.108 (talk) 13:25, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Kennedy Story
Do we have any sources aside from Derbyshire himself for the Robert Kennedy tale? It frankly seems suspect - the narrative style, the "right here in this river", the sheer randomness of it without due explanation.

Frankly, based solely on my observation, it seems there is a certain trend among class-conscious British men of a certain generation to tell tall, embellished but fascinating tales, usually involving a very neat and important conversation with a famous person who randomly took them into their confidence, and all in a certain detailed narrative style: Alec Guinness, Stephen Runciman, Paul Johnson and many others (including my grandfather) are all guilty of it! Harsimaja (talk) 02:21, 14 January 2017 (UTC)