Posted by Peter H on April 03, 2006 at 14:49:50 from 86.130.127.110 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Linda Smith (was: Children's writers) posted by Robert Hill on April 03, 2006 at 01:35:43:
News Quiz. Any regular listener to that show has to learn to be a bit thick-skinned
You're absolutely right, Robert! For that reason, I stopped listening to it about three years ago. I couldn't laugh at the snidey humour. All the great comics were self-deprecatory. Not this lot. I can do no better than quote Colin Sedgwick (and the fact that he mentioned the Bible in his Guardian article is irrelevant):
Is it too high-minded to suggest that to cause someone gratuitous pain in order to raise a laugh is a genuine moral issue?
Linda Smith was a long-time cancer sufferer, and I am prepared, perhaps, to make some allowances. But she had a lot of anger inside her, nonetheless. I wonder what our reaction would be if she had said 'Swallows and Amazons' instead of 'Harry Potter'? Not quite so blasé, methinks.