You’re All Talk: Why We Are What We Speak by Rob Drummond
Review by Lix Dexter This is a book about the relationship between how we speak and who we are. More precisely, it’s a book about the role of spoken language,…
A Date with Language by David Crystal
Reviewed by Karen Langley Bodleian Library Publishing is an imprint attached to Oxford University which specialises in bringing out books that share the riches of the Bodley’s wide-ranging collections with…
Mother Tongue: The Surprising History of Women’s Words by Jenni Nuttall
Review by Liz Dexter The history of women’s words, it turns out, is full of surprises, of things which aren’t necessarily what you’d expect. Even our basics have unfamiliar beginnings….
Your Voice Speaks Volumes: It’s Not What You Say but How You Say It, by Jane Setter
Review by Liz Dexter I would like the message of this chapter to be that we should all be more tolerant of people’s voice quality and pitch ranges. As a…
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
Reviewed by Anna Hollingsworth Why country X? Why language Y? Anyone who has lived abroad or taken up a foreign language will be familiar with those questions. So, too, Polly…
Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell
Reviewed by Liz Dexter I greatly enjoyed reading Nancy Campbell’s meditation on the icy places of the world, The Library of Ice. last year, so when I was alerted that…
Let’s Talk: How English Conversation Works by David Crystal
Review by Liz Dexter “What makes a successful conversation?” is a question David Crystal considers asking people in his new book – and, well, how would you answer that question?…
Learning Languages in Early Modern England by John Gallagher
Review by Liz Dexter Has it ever struck you that before England obtained its empire, no one else in the world bothered to speak the language? Did you realise what…
Futurekind: Design by and for the People by Robert Phillips
Review by Liz Dexter Robert Phillips is a senior tutor on the Design Products course at the Royal College of Art, as well as being an award-winning product designer in…
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
Review by Peter Reason When our postman handed me the package that contained my review copy of The Lost Words I blurted out, “I’ve been waiting for this!” In the…
Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing : Encounters with the Mysteries & Meanings of Language by Daniel Tammet
Reviewed by Liz Dexter You may remember Tammet from his autism memoir, Born on a Blue Day, and his fascination with words and languages as well as numbers continues until the…