While last Friday’s BBC Radio 4 programme presented by Mark Miodownik on How to write an Instruction Manual presented an upbeat and quirky view of the history and importance of instruction manuals, the BBC’s technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, has presented a very different view on his BBC blog. (That’s a Welsh double-L in Rory’s surname, so it’s pronounced something like ‘kethlin-jones’.)

Miodownik talked about the “amazingness” of technology, and his disappointment that the manuals for modern technology were not themselves as amazing as the technology they described. He thought that manuals that generally began with five pages of Health and Safety warnings, and had basic instructions in 17 languages crammed into one book, were “soulless”. His ideal manuals are like the “owner’s workshop manuals” for motor cars produced by Haynes publishers, and the obvious high point of the show for Miodownik was when he got to interview John Haynes himself. Read more