30-Day Bestsellers

The English language is where words go to be tortured and mutilated into unrecognizable shadows of their former selves. It's where Latin, Greek, and Germanic roots are shredded apart and...

*A FINANCIAL TIMES , GUARDIAN AND TLS BOOK OF THE SUMMER* 'The fascinating story of ancient words ... new revelations await' The Guardian 'A magisterial feat' New Scientist ________________________________ One...

How cubism and Dada radically reimagined the social nature of language, following the utopian poetic vision of Stephane Mallarme.At the outset of the twentieth century, language became a visual medium...

Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue is a hymn to the English language. In examining how a second-rate, mongrel tongue came to be the undisputed language of the globe. Bryson explores English...

I'm not a racist, but... You look good, for your age... She was asking for it... You're crazy... That's so gay... Have you ever wondered why certain language has the...

Language is the most human invention. Spontaneous, unruly, passionate, and erratic it resists every attempt to discipline or regularize it--a history celebrated here in all its irreverent glory. Language is...

A grand unifying theory of human flourishing and inequality from one of the world's pre-eminent thinkers A bold retelling of the entire human story from one of the world's pre-eminent...

A collection of 15 classic Chinese folk stories - passed down from generation to generation - presented in both Chinese and English. Welcome to the land of Chinese folklore, a...

'Susie Dent is a one-off. She breathes life and fun into words and language' Pam Ayres ' Susie Dent is a national treasure' Richard Osman Welcome to a year of...

The history of writing, or so the standard story goes, is an ascending process, evolving toward the alphabet and finally culminating in the "full writing" of recorded speech. Writing without...

A landmark in Boswell and Johnson studies In Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a...

Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest-a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to a diverse range of writing...

When we look up a word in a dictionary, we want to know not just its meaning but also its function and the circumstances under which it should be used...

'A fiendishly good read!' Mignon Fogarty, Grammar Girl The English language is where words go to be tortured and mutilated into unrecognizable shadows of their former selves. It's where Latin,...

From Loki to Thor, Ragnarok to Beowulf A gripping and truly mesmerising delve into the Norse legends From bestselling books to blockbusting Hollywood movies, the myths of the Scandinavian gods...

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER! 'ONE OF THE FINEST MYSTERIES I HAVE EVER READ' Rob Rinder, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Trial 'A TANTALISING MYSTERY FOR WORD SLEUTHS AND...

This book sets out to explore the way, with the onset of a new and integral relationship between text and image, the modern poster is able to evolve distinctive persuasive...

More than anything else, language is what makes us human. Linguistics, the discipline which studies the structure, function, and phenomena of lanuage, has uncovered many surprising and fascinating things about...

Why might Hamlet be even longer in Italian? How does the story of Romeo and Juliet begin . . . in Thai? How do you build a joke in German,...

"Across the darkened basement something creaked, and I tightened my grip on the Colt Diamondback. I'm not usually timid, but my palm was sweaty. That worried me; if I had...

How did the delphinium get its name? Which parts of the body lend their names to auriculas and orchids? Who are the gentian, lobelia and heuchera named after? Why are...