Babel Lecture 2022 with Stephen Fry: ’What we have here is a failure to communicate’ (17/06/22)

Babel was honoured to have actor, writer and polymath Stephen Fry give our 10th anniversary Babel Lecture: ’What we have here is a failure to communicate’ on Friday 17 June 2022. Stephen discussed the roots of his love of language, taking in his precocious quoting of Oscar Wilde, the pointlessness of pedantry, and the importance of enjoying your own gift for language. You can find out more about Babel magazine, read our sampler issues, and subscribe at . (Stephen discusses a couple of clips in his talk. You can find Fry & Laurie’s ’language’ sketch online, and the kinetic typography clip on prescriptivism at