Penny Ur was awarded an OBE
(Officer of the Order of the British Empire ) for
services to English Language Teaching earlier this year and as my last gig for the British Council I organised an event in her honour at the annual summer ETAI conference in Jerusalem. Knowing that events of
this kind can easily slide into a sentimental outpouring of endless congratulations
and knowing that Penny is not the kind of person who would like that, we were
keen to keep it professional, elegant and "not too gooey" (Amanda Caplan,
personal communication, 22 March 2013).