“Speaking of the demise of the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, the author said: ‘I do regret that children don’t have this experience of language which is grand and stately, and above their heads if you like. Because it gave me an immense amount of pleasure to hear the cadences and rhythms of these great prayers.’
Philip Pullman, the author, has lamented the loss of “grand, stately” language as the use of the King James Bible and Book of Common Prayer declines, saying children have been left with “flat and dull texts”.
Pullman, the president of the Society of Authors and writer of the bestselling His Dark Materials series, said he had been entranced by the language of the texts as a child, as he praised the richness of the language.
Saying churchgoers are now left with the more prosaic words of modern version of the Bible, he argued it would be good for children to hear language many might think is “above their heads”.
In an interview with fellow author Michael Rosen on Radio 4’s Word of Mouth, Pullman spoke in praise of the exploration of the English words, saying children enjoy it “much more than we sometimes allow them”.
He added he was “constantly puzzled” by the tendency of US publishers to remove English words from his novels and replace them with American equivalents, insisting children were far more open to learning than often believed.
Speaking of the demise of the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, the author said: “I do regret that children don’t have this experience of language which is grand and stately, and above their heads if you like.
“Because it gave me an immense amount of pleasure to hear the cadences and rhythms of these great prayers.
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