The quote on that £10 note
THE new £10 note made its debut this week, the one with the picture of Jane Austen. The launch coincided with the 200th anniversary of her death and Andrea Leadsom’s entertaining gaffe that Austen is “one of our greatest living authors”. Oops.
Anyway, there’s a quote on the note which reads: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading.” Well, that sounds fine, doesn’t it? Nice and suitable. Except not. Because the character in Pride And Prejudice who says this is the frivolous Caroline Bingley who is trying to impress Mr Darcy. (Though of course all women would like to impress Mr Darcy.)
How silly of the Bank of England to be caught out in this way said all those who’d done the book for GCSE. This must have needled Mr Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England who when he arrived from Canada (rather in the way that Jane Austen describes Mr Darcy) “soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien, and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a
A RECENT weather forecast on Radio 5 Live promised “overhead sunshine”. As opposed to..? AS a frequent insomniac I’m not best pleased to learn that sleeplessness leads to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. Just something else to keep me awake at night…
year”. (More like £800,000 the gossips would now say.)
A wiser man would have ignored the criticism but it is a truth universally acknowledged that nobody likes to be found out as never having actually read Pride’n’Prej even though you can get away with study notes if you’re desperate.
But Mr Carney-Darcy insists that the quote was meant to be arch. “If you know the work you can enjoy the irony,” he bluffed, digging his hole just that little bit deeper.
Sad to say the Bank of England has been caught out by the “inspirational quote” mania which is emptying our brains. Social media is full of them, embroidered on cushions, printed on witless greetings cards and T-shirts, life coaches bleat them, tattooists ink them on teenagers’ limbs.
Relentlessly upbeat and banal they have replaced reasoned argument. You know the sort of thing: “Live every day as if it’s your last.” Or “It doesn’t matter how many times you fall. Get up.” If you lived every day as if it was your last you wouldn’t pay a bill or bother to wash your hair. If you keep falling over, surely it could mean you needed medical attention and shouldn’t get up.
Jane Austen’s misapplied quote is just another example of this nonsense but we’re stuck with it now. The age of the ironic tenner is upon us.
MOST students can’t be bothered to vote once. So I find it difficult to believe that many went to the trouble of – as has been reported – illicitly voting twice.