CLOUDESLEY BRERETON , L. es L. Paris
Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur
Cloudesley Brereton 's talks under this title tonight and next Tuesday not only serve as an introduction to the second year of the Adult French course which is to begin on October i, but are complete in themselves. From tonight's talk alone listeners will learn more about France, her history, her land, her people, and their characteristics, than they would by making a short stay in the country itself; and it is mainly for those who are learning French with the remote likelihood of ever being able to cross the Channel that these talks are given.
Cloudesley Brereton has a gift for description and knows his subject so well that he can talk fluently about it. But then he knows France and things French rather better than a native. On leaving Cambridge he went to the Sorbonne, and it is said that he was the first foreigner to take a degree in the University of Paris without using his own language. Going back again for short and long visits to France has been a lifelong habit.
One of his great friends is Bergson, whom he made known in England when he translated ' Le Rire ' under the title of 'Laughter'. Another of his translations of Bergson has just been published—' The Two Sources of Morality and Religion'. He is one of the recognised authorities on the teaching of the French language in England, but for some strange reason he has never broadcast before.
7.25 Interval