See all pages Jonty Claypole, the BBC’s director of arts, grew up with a stammer, said Ben Cooke in The Times. In Words Fails Us, he powerfully argues that all conditions which involve “disfluency” – such as stammering, Tourette’s and aphasia – should be looked on more positively. For much of history, he points out, “speech disorders were thought of as “malfunctions”, sometimes treated with grotesque remedies – including, in the 19th century, “gory incisions” to the tongue. Though society has become more enlightened, Claypole believes there is a long way to go: when young, he himself felt ashamed of his stammer. He proposes a movement for “communications diversity”, akin to the one for neurodiversity that in recent years has “valorised” autism.