Excerpts from letters to England (grammar and spelling
choices have been left intact)
Tripoli, 24th July 1984
"Another thing which is quite interesting is that some
of the Tripoli Players are doing a sound recording for some educational tapes
to teach Libyans English words and grammar, and they have asked me if I would
consider doing some recording as well, since I have such a clear voice. Someone
remembered me from the CALL MY BLUFF evening and suggested me. Nice to be
remembered. Mind you, I'll probably bungle it on the day, stutter so much that
no one will understand a single word, English or otherwise.”
 |
| Focused on my "True" and "Bluff" words at the CALL MY BLUFF night |
Tripoli, 31st July 1984
“The sound recording went very well last night. I was
terribly nervous at first, particularly since I only knew a couple of the
people there and I didn't know them well. It was a proper recording studio with
the soundproof booth in which the speakers had to sit, and out of which, guys
ran around, twiddling knobs and setting up tapes. I had to read twice, long
passages with Arabic names I had never seen before, certainly never had to say
aloud before. You get the chance to read it once aloud and then you record.
Well, it was fine. After I'd lost my nerves a bit, it wasn't so bad at all.
Listening to myself afterwards was the worst. I sound so high-pitched and I've
always thought of myself as having quite a low voice. I'm having to train myself
to speak more slowly; you know what I'm like, gabble gabble. I shall be there
again twice next week and so on, until the whole book has been recorded. It is
to teach children, a whole book with specialised grammar and words which the
authorities here consider useful, like the life of bees, the use of a forklift
truck, a visit to Sabratha. Honestly, when I think of *JANET AND JOHN, it makes
me laugh!”
*JANET AND JOHN (from Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_and_John)
Originally, these books were based on a series published by
Row Peterson and Company as the Alice and Jerry books in the United
States. Alice and Jerry was written by Mabel O'Donnell and the stories
were illustrated by Florence and Margaret Hoopes. In 1949 United Kingdom
publishers James Nisbet and Company licensed them and had them Anglicised by
Mabel O'Donnell and Rona Munro to make a UK series of four books called Janet
and John. The Janet and John books used the same artwork as the Alice and Jerry
books but completely new text was written by Munro, originally a New Zealander.
Also in 1949 a New Zealand series of seven books was released by Nisbet and
used as a textbook in New Zealand primary schools.
The books became hugely popular and influential in the
teaching of schoolchildren throughout the 1950s and 1960s. This was one of the
first popular "look-and-say" reading schemes and, as such, introduced
the less regular "Key words" at an earlier stage of reading than the phonics schemes.
Janet and John were portrayed as average English children,
living a typical middle-class life that reinforced many of the stereotypes
of the time, and the books consisted of stories that progressively incorporated
key words needed in the development of reading skills:
- Out and About, 1949
- Off to Play, 1949
- I Know a Story, 1949
- Once Upon a Time, 1951
- Snow-White and Red-Rose, 1951
