Pygmalion

OK, OK, I've had my little rant. It is peace now.

The writing is going well. I seem to thrive in a fake Italian cafe. It is funny how work can take shape if you simply plug away at it for two hours a day. Initially all I seemed to produce was absent-minded reveries but gradually the words became more focused. It looks like I have characters and I have a plot. The action set in Scotland, the place where I grew up though I am not, I hasten to say, Scottish.

This all begs the question is it OK for an English person to imitate a Scottish accent? I can think of plenty of people in Scotland who'd object and who'd deride any attempt to do so but one of things I want to explore - from the safety of my Norfolk home - is the interplay between Scottish English and English English. I can well remember my school friends laughing at my London accent. I felt slightly hurt but I wouldn't say I was bullied. My friends used to give me elocution lessons to tame my southern vowels. I think they were inspired by My Fair Lady but I reckon they rather missed the point of it. After all what obscenity did the good lady yell at the races?

My speech may have been mocked in the playground but in the classroom I thrived. The kids with broad accents were pilloried by the teachers. The funny thing is when I got to university some of my public school peers used to long for regional and working class accents. I find it all very confusing.