The Dictionary of Lost Words
Pip Williams
£9.99
Mr B's review
Somewhere between The Shadow of the Wind and Dear Mrs Bird, this is a gentle, easy read for word-lovers! Esme grows up under the table in the ‘scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and his team are collecting words for the first ever Oxford English Dictionary. One day, a slip of paper bearing the word ‘bondmaid’ falls to the floor, beginning an obsession of collecting lost, forgotten and discarded words. They help Esme make sense of her world; a world that she grows up into, at the peak of the suffragette movement and with the Great War looming.
Description
‘An enchanting story about love, loss and the power of language’ Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory
Sometimes you have to start with what’s lost to truly find yourself…
Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood at her father’s feet as he and his team gather words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.
One day, she sees a slip of paper containing a forgotten word flutter to the floor unclaimed.
And so Esme begins to collect words for another dictionary in secret: The Dictionary of Lost Words. But to do so she must journey into a world on the cusp of change as the Great War looms and women fight for the vote. Can the power of lost words from the past finally help her make sense of her future?
‘A brilliant book about women and words – tender, moving and profound’ Jacqueline Wilson
Readers LOVE The Dictionary of Lost Words:
‘If you only read one book this year, let it be this one!’
‘If you’re a fan of The Binding and The Betrayals you will surely love this’
‘A glorious combination of words, growing up, friendship, love, feminism and so much more’
‘The best love letter to words and language’
‘This book broke my heart … I highly recommend it to any historical fiction fans … it’s one I will be reading again’
Publisher Review
A brilliant book about women and words – tender, moving and profound — Jacqueline Wilson An extraordinary, charming novel… Williams pins a whole, rich life to the page * The Times * Poignant, perfectly paced… a beautifully nuanced work — Eithne Farry * Mail on Sunday * I absolutely loved this book! Thought-provoking, touching and subtly romantic; I finished it in tears — Katie Fforde Williams’s satisfying novel animates a fascinating history and imbues it with a feminist slant, asking how words mean different things to men and women — Patricia Nicol * Sunday Times *
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