Private Eye

King's speech: what is it and why does it matter?

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Today, King Charles will give his first speech from the throne as monarch. He delivered the queen’s speech once as Prince of Wales, deputising in May 2022 for his mother, who could not attend. This is the first speech by a king since 1951, though on that occasion King George VI was too ill to attend and the speech was read out by the Lord Chancellor.Who writes the king’s speech and why does it matter?There, he reads out a speech outlining the government’s plans and priorities for the year ahead.

Key Points: 


Today, King Charles will give his first speech from the throne as monarch. He delivered the queen’s speech once as Prince of Wales, deputising in May 2022 for his mother, who could not attend. This is the first speech by a king since 1951, though on that occasion King George VI was too ill to attend and the speech was read out by the Lord Chancellor.

Who writes the king’s speech and why does it matter?

  • There, he reads out a speech outlining the government’s plans and priorities for the year ahead.
  • Although it is known as the king’s speech, it is actually written by the government, for the monarch.

What happens at the speech?

  • The monarch sits on the royal throne in the House of Lords – the upper house.
  • No seats are provided for MPs, so they have to crowd into an inadequate space at the back.
  • Meanwhile, the door of the Commons is slammed in black rod’s face as a reminder of the independence of the Commons.

What if the monarch disagrees with the speech?

  • The monarch has the right to advise, warn and encourage the prime minister on policy.
  • In return he must always follow the prime minister’s advice and he must read the prime minister’s speech.

What can we expect from this year’s king’s speech?

  • This is something the king himself has to gauge, with advice from the government.
  • The speech is the first indication of the government’s legislative priorities for the year ahead.
  • We can certainly expect reference to housing and the cost of living crisis, and possibly to the ongoing crises in Gaza and Ukraine.


Sean Lang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Jewish creators are a fundamental part of comic book history, from Superman to Maus – expert explains

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Jewish writers and artists have been a fundamental part of comic book creation since the early days of the industry.

Key Points: 
  • Jewish writers and artists have been a fundamental part of comic book creation since the early days of the industry.
  • Their Famous Funnies comic book sold 90% of the 200,000 printed copies.
  • This led to numerous imitators, including New Fun Comics from National Allied Publications (later renamed DC Comics), which published its first issue in 1935.
  • In the 1930s, comic books reprinted comic strips that had previously appeared in newspaper humour sections.
  • Writer Roy Schwartz also sees elements of Jewish mythology in the character, as noted in his 2021 book Is Superman Circumcised?.

Other genres

    • Together, they brought romance to the medium in 1947 and made memorable monster comics in the 1960s.
    • Another popular genre was mystery comics.
    • In the 1970s, a number of notable female Jewish creators first had their work published in Underground Comix, including Trina Robbins, Diane Noomin and Aline Kominsky-Crumb.

Modern Jewish comics

    • Comics editor Corinne Pearlman drew a popular strip Playing the Jewish Card in the 1990s and now edits graphic novels.
    • She and other creators were featured in the 2011 exhibition and book Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women, curated by graphic novelist Sarah Lightman.
    • Lightman is one of the editors of a new follow-up anthology, Jewish Women in Comics: Borders and Bodies.

From 'technicolour yawn' to 'draining the dragon': how Barry Humphries breathed new life into Australian slang

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Barry Humphries breathed life into Australia’s “slanguage” – but it was often an imagined life.

Key Points: 
  • Barry Humphries breathed life into Australia’s “slanguage” – but it was often an imagined life.
  • Humphries took linguistic invention to extremes – plucking words and phrases out of obscurity, but also pushing or exceeding acceptability.

“Slangy philosophers” in Australian history

    • During a great period of Australian myth-making (1890-1925), newspapers and magazines such as the Argus, Australian Tit-Bits and the Bulletin enabled the public to write letters or stories and debate one another.
    • Readers aggressively debated Australian word etymologies - and the degree to which these words were or were not Australian.
    • For instance, a Bulletin writer by the name of “Blue Duck” dismissed the emerging Australian slang, writing, “Much Australian slang is simply cockney flash, introduced every mailboat by stewards”.
    • Many aspects of the Australian lexicon first emerge in Britain, or in the imaginations of our middle-class citizens or artists.

Humphries and the lexicon of New Nationalism

    • Barry Humphries’s Bazza McKenzie character emerged during Australia’s New Nationalism in the 1960s/1970s.
    • In linguistic terms, this was an era of growing colloquiality in Australian English.
    • Humphries noted that
      words like cobber and bonzer still intrude as a sop to Pommy readers, though such words are seldom, if ever, used in present-day Australia.

Bazza, taboo and the Australian lexicon

    • Of course, Humphries – especially through Bazza McKenzie – didn’t just breath fresh life into old Australian words, but coined many of his own.
    • Slang generally flourishes wherever things go bump in the night, and Humphries had in his sights Victorian taboos around body parts and bodily effluvia.
    • He was also a master of the frankenphrase – pulling together bits and pieces of the Australian lexicon, and reinventing them.

Beer-swilling Bazza and our slang from ‘Down Under’

    • The verses were very much inspired by a character he had called Barry McKenzie, who was a beer-swilling Australian who travelled to England, a very larger-than-life character.
    • He’s a master of comedy and he had a lot of expressions that we grew up listening to and emulating.
    • To survive, slang expressions require what Ben Zimmer once described as a “perfect lexicographical storm”.

SCHOLASTIC PLANTS "BIG TREE" BY #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND AWARD-WINNING ARTIST BRIAN SELZNICK

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 9, 2022

NEW YORK, June 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, is set to publish BIG TREE, an immersive novel in words and pictures by Brian Selznick, the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of the Caldecott Medal-winning The Invention of Hugo Cabret. This new trailblazing tour de force will be released in hardcover and ebook formats on April 4, 2023, simultaneously in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Illumination owns the film rights for the book.

Key Points: 
  • It is filled with mystery and danger, humor, heart, and hope, and will captivate readers ages seven and up.
  • Illumination's Chris Meledandri said, "Brian Selznick is a singular talent who immerses the reader in the natural world with his stunning imagery.
  • He followed that with the #1 New York Times bestseller, Wonderstruck, adapted into the eponymous movie by celebrated filmmaker Todd Haynes, with a screenplay by Selznick, and thenthe New York Times bestseller, The Marvels.
  • Selznick's most recent bestselling novel Kaleidoscope was a New York Times Notable Children's Book of 2021.

Scholastic Announces Acclaimed Actress Gwendoline Christie As Narrator For Audio Edition Of "Kaleidoscope" By #1 New York Times Bestselling Author And Award-Winning Artist Brian Selznick

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 2, 2021

We couldn't be more thrilled to have the uber-talented Gwendoline Christie voice the audiobook.

Key Points: 
  • We couldn't be more thrilled to have the uber-talented Gwendoline Christie voice the audiobook.
  • Gwendoline Christie said, "What a pleasure to communicate the spectacular Brian Selznick's captivating, wildly imaginative and thrillingly phantasmagorical collection of stories!
  • "Putting together the audio version of Kaleidoscope was a great joy and an incredible challenge," said Brian Selznick.
  • Gwendoline most recently starred on stage in Nicholas Hytner'sproduction of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Bridge Theatre as "Titania."