Winston had recovered part of his self-possession. ‘Hardly scholarly,’ he said. ‘I’m only an amateur. It’s not my subject. I have never had anything to do with the actual construction of the language.’
‘But you write it very elegantly,’ said O’Brien. ‘That is not only my own opinion. I was talking recently to a friend of yours who is certainly an expert. His name has slipped my memory for the moment.’