Harry Ritchie is a former literary editor of the Sunday Times and is the author of a number of books including Success Stories, an analysis of the English literary scene of the 1950s, and The Last Pink Bits, a tour of Britain's remaining colonies. He was born in Kirkcaldy, was educated at Edinburgh University and Lincoln College, Oxford, and now lives in London.
A hugely entertaining read, full of attitude and verve and sharp running jokes. And underneath all this lies rigorous linguistic heft, which gives the book real authority Daily Mail I learnt a lot about my own language from English for the Natives, and about how our language and our understanding of the world have developed in tandem. And I particularly appreciated Harry Ritchie's bold dismantling of the metaphysics of Chomskyan structuralism. Wonderful to have such a fresh first-hand observation of how language actually works Michael Frayn Clear, trenchant, funny, Ritchie makes thinking a pleasure John Carey Essential reading Nick Hornby An engaging response to an educational disaster ... This book is sensible, valuable and written with a sense of fun TLS How many new books are there about words, grammar and language? Nonetheless, Harry Ritchie's English for the Natives leaps to the top of the pile for its sharp, good sense, linguistic rigour [and] sense of humour -- Marcus Berkmann The Spectator On the pleasantly scholarly end of the word book spectrum. Informed by linguistics, it has a particularly good discussion of the controversy between innatists (following Chomsky) and others Guardian