The Dictionary of Lost Words: Reese's Book Club: A Novel

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • “Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress.”—Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of People of the Book

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.

As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.

Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.

WINNER OF THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK INDUSTRY AWARD

Review

“A beautiful exploration of history and the power of language. For anybody who loves words and celebrates them, this subversive story weaves together love, loss and literature in a perfectly lyrical way.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club May ’22 Pick)

“This remarkable novel tries to rectify a glaring oversight in the historical accounts of the first Oxford English Dictionary—the contributions of women . . . without whom the English language wouldn’t have evolved as fully and colorfully as it has.”—Boston magazine

“Enchanting, sorrowful, and wonderfully written, the book is a one-of-a-kind celebration of language and its importance in our lives. A must-have.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“In Williams’s exuberant, meticulously researched debut, the daughter of a lexicographer devotes her life to an alternative dictionary. . . . Williams’s feminist take on language will move readers.”—Publishers Weekly

“Williams turns history as we know it on its head in this delightful debut, spotlighting those women and their contributions, using the awe-inspiring power of words themselves to illuminate them.”—Newsweek

“[A] masterfully written, beautiful first novel that tells a fascinating story of language, love and loss.”—Historical Novel Society

“The writing is glorious; I dog-eared many pages as I read, marking passages that helped me see words in a new way.”—Manhattan Book Review (starred review)

“The novel you’ve been waiting for without even realizing it . . . Williams will convince you of a word’s importance in a most lovely and charismatic story.”—Bookreporter

“A lexicographer’s dream of a novel, this is a lovely book to get lost in, an imaginative love letter to dictionaries.”—Booklist

“Williams provides readers with detailed background and biographical information pointing to extensive research about the [Oxford English Dictionary] and its editors, many of whom appear as characters in Esme’s life. The result is a satisfying amalgam of truth and historical fiction.”—Kirkus Reviews

“In the annals of lexicography, no more imaginative, delightful, charming, and clever book has yet been written.”—Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

“What a novel of words, their adventure, and their capacity to define and, above all, challenge the world. There will not be this year a more original novel published. I just know it.”—Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s List

“What a compelling, fresh look at historical women! This marvelous exploration into the ways in which spoken and written language impact us is a delight and an education.”—Marie Benedict, author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

“This charming, inventive, and utterly irresistible novel is the story we all need right now. Words have never mattered more, as Pip Williams illuminates in her unforgettable debut.”—Susan Wiggs, author of The Lost and Found Bookshop

About the Author

Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family and an assortment of animals. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying what keeps us well and what helps us thrive, and she is the author of One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family’s travels in search of the good life, which was published in Australia to wide acclaim. Based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

May 1887

Scriptorium. It sounds as if it might have been a grand building, where the lightest footstep would echo between marble floor and gilded dome. But it was just a shed, in the back garden of a house in Oxford.

Instead of storing shovels and rakes, the shed stored words. Every word in the English language was written on a slip of paper the size of a postcard. Volunteers posted them from all over the world, and they were kept in bundles in the hundreds of pigeon-holes that lined the shed walls. Dr. Murray was the one who named it the Scriptorium—he must have thought it an indignity for the English language to be stored in a garden shed—but everyone who worked there called it the Scrippy. Everyone but me. I liked the feel of Scriptorium as it moved around my mouth and landed softly between my lips. It took me a long time to learn to say it, and when I finally did nothing else would do.

Da once helped me search the pigeon-holes for scriptorium. We found five slips with examples of how the word had been used, each quotation dating back little more than a hundred years. All of them were more or less the same, and none of them referred to a shed in the back garden of a house in Oxford. A scriptorium, the slips told me, was a writing room in a monastery.

But I understood why Dr. Murray had chosen it. He and his assistants were a little like monks, and when I was five it was easy to imagine the Dictionary as their holy book. When Dr. Murray told me it would take a lifetime to compile all the words, I wondered whose. His hair was already as grey as ash, and they were only halfway through B.

Da and Dr. Murray had been teachers together in Scotland long before there was a scriptorium. And because they were friends, and because I had no mother to care for me, and because Da was one of Dr. Murray’s most trusted lexicographers, everyone turned a blind eye when I was in the Scriptorium.

The Scriptorium felt magical, like everything that ever was and ever could be had been stored within its walls. Books were piled on every surface. Old dictionaries, histories and tales from long ago filled the shelves that separated one desk from another, or created a nook for a chair. Pigeon-holes rose from the floor to the ceiling. They were crammed full of slips, and Da once said that if I read every one, I’d understand the meaning of everything.

In the middle of it all was the sorting table. Da sat at one end, and three assistants could fit along either side. At the other end was Dr. Murray’s high desk, facing all the words and all the men who helped him define them.

We always arrived before the other lexicographers, and for that little while I would have Da and the words all to myself. I’d sit on Da’s lap at the sorting table and help him sort the slips. Whenever we came across a word I didn’t know, he would read the quotation it came with and help me work out what it meant. If I asked the right questions, he would try to find the book the quotation came from and read me more. It was like a treasure hunt, and sometimes I found gold.

“This boy had been a scatter-brained scapegrace from his birth.” Da read the quotation from a slip he had just pulled out of an envelope.

“Am I a scatter-brained scapegrace?” I asked.

“Sometimes,” Da said, tickling me.

Then I asked who the boy was, and Da showed me where it was written at the top of the slip.

“Ala-ed-Din and the Wonderful Lamp,” he read.

When the other assistants arrived I slipped under the sorting table.

“Be quiet as a mouse and stay out of the way,” Da said.

It was easy to stay hidden.

At the end of the day I sat on Da’s lap by the warmth of the grate and we read “Ala-ed-Din and the Wonderful Lamp.” It was an old story, Da said. About a boy from China. When I asked if there were others, he said there were a thousand more. The story was like nothing I had heard, nowhere I had been, and no one I knew of. I looked around the Scriptorium and imagined it as a genie’s lamp. It was so ordinary on the outside, but on the inside full of wonder. And some things weren’t always what they seemed.

The next day, after helping with the slips, I pestered Da for another story. In my enthusiasm I forgot to be as quiet as a mouse; I was getting in his way.

“A scapegrace will not be allowed to stay,” Da warned, and I imagined being banished to Ala-ed-Din’s cave. I spent the rest of the day beneath the sorting table, where a little bit of treasure found me.

It was a word, and it slipped off the end of the table. When it lands, I thought, I’ll rescue it, and hand it to Dr. Murray myself.

I watched it. For a thousand moments I watched it ride some unseen current of air. I expected it to land on the unswept floor, but it didn’t. It glided like a bird, almost landing, then rose up to somersault as if bidden by a genie. I never imagined that it might land in my lap, that it could possibly travel so far. But it did.

The word sat in the folds of my dress like a bright thing fallen from heaven. I dared not touch it. It was only with Da that I was allowed to hold the words. I thought to call out to him, but something caught my tongue. I sat with the word for a long time, wanting to touch it, but not. What word? I wondered. Whose? No one bent down to claim it.

After a long while I scooped the word up, careful not to crush its silvery wings, and brought it close to my face. It was difficult to read in the gloom of my hiding spot. I shuffled along to where a curtain of sparkling dust hung between two chairs.

I held the word up to the light. Black ink on white paper. Eight letters; the first, a butterfly B. I moved my mouth around the rest as Da had taught me: O for orange, N for naughty, D for dog, M for Murray, A for apple, I for ink, D for dog, again. I sounded them out in a whisper. The first part was easy: bond. The second part took a little longer, but then I remembered how the A and I went together. Maid.

The word was bondmaid. Below it were other words that ran together like a tangle of thread. I couldn’t tell if they made up a quotation sent in by a volunteer or a definition written by one of Dr. Murray’s assistants. Da said that all the hours he spent in the Scriptorium were to make sense of the words sent in by volunteers, so that those words could be defined in the Dictionary. It was important, and it meant I would get a schooling and three hot meals and grow up to be a fine young lady. The words, he said, were for me.

“Will they all get defined?” I once asked.

“Some will be left out,” Da said.

“Why?”

He paused. “They’re just not solid enough.” I frowned, and he said, “Not enough people have written them down.”

“What happens to the words that are left out?”

“They go back in the pigeon-holes. If there isn’t enough information about them, they’re discarded.”

“But they might be forgotten if they’re not in the Dictionary.”

He’d tilted his head to one side and looked at me, as if I’d said something important. “Yes, they might.”

I knew what happened when a word was discarded. I folded bondmaid carefully and put it in the pocket of my pinny.

A moment later, Da’s face appeared under the sorting table. “Run along now, Esme. Lizzie’s waiting for you.”

I peered between all the legs--chairs’, table’s, men’s--and saw the Murrays’ young maid standing beyond the open door, her pinafore tied tight around her waist, too much fabric above and too much fabric below. She was still growing into it, she told me, but from under the sorting table she reminded me of someone playing at dress up. I crawled between the pairs of legs and scampered out to her.

“Next time you should come in and find me; it would be more fun,” I said, when I got to Lizzie.

“It’s not me place.” She took my hand and walked me to the shade of the ash tree.

“Where is your place?"

She frowned, then shrugged. “The room at the top of the stairs, I s’pose. The kitchen when I’m helping Mrs. Ballard, but definitely not when I ain’t. St. Mary Magdalen on a Sunday.”

“Is that all?”

“The garden, when I’m caring for you—so we don’t get under Mrs. B’s feet. And more and more the Covered Market, ’cos of her cranky knees.”

“Has Sunnyside always been your place?” I asked.

“Not always.” She looked down at me, and I wondered where her smile had gone.

“Where did it used to be?”

She hesitated. “With me ma and all our littluns.”

“What are littluns?”

“Children.”

“Like me?”

“Like you, Essymay.”

“Are they dead?”

“Just me ma. The littluns was taken away, I don’t know where. They was too young for service.”

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars This novel is a dream read for anyone who loves everything about words!

M.F. · January 19, 2025

This novel is a dream read for anyone who loves everything about words! Pip Williams’ historic fiction about the making of the Oxford Dictionary at the turn of the 20th century is fascinating! Esme, the young protagonist, learns the power of words from her father’s world as a lexicographer. She starts collecting words that are lost, the first word being bondmaid. As she grows, so does her awareness of whose words are not being collected for the dictionary—those used by women. Williams’ seamlessly weaves facts along with fiction and her beautiful imagery to create a believable story world, a sympathetic hero, and an original premise.Synopsis: Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme begins to collect words that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world. Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men.I love this book, so much so it has become one of my top ten favorites. I highly recommend reading or listening to it!

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving - a must read!

M. · May 25, 2025

4⭐️Overall this book was really thought-provoking and really emotionally developed. The authors relationship with words was surprisingly whimsical and so well thought-out that it enhanced the reading experience. It’s made me think about my own relationship with words and how they continue to have different meanings in contexts that may or may not be able to be clearly defined or preserved over time.The prologue was short but told a really compelling story, so I was immediately drawn in. “Some words are more important than others - I learned this growing up in the Scriptorium. But it took me a long time to understand why.”I really enjoyed the authors use of words as the links of the chains that comprised Esme’s life. Her relationship with words and her need to learn new words in response to challenges was woven seamlessly into the story and showed Esme’s rational problem-solving characteristics. The authors use of words, or lack thereof, was able to perfectly describe how Esme was feeling, because words were her safe space. The link between language and her character development was really well written, and really smart to embed so deeply into the story.It was a whirlwind of emotions - I cried on page 68 and laughed on page 70. I found that the emotions calmed down a bit further into the book as the pacing slowed. I will say that there was a lot of tragedy embedded in this book, and maybe that was intentional, but I felt like some of it was a bit overwhelming, and some of the tragedies later on in the book could have been removed without changing the impact of the story.My biggest issue with the book was the pacing, because some of it was slower paced than other parts. Understandably, this makes sense given the storyline and the time it takes to make the Dictionary, but some sections felt unnecessary or overwritten. This may also be a personal preference, as I’m not a big Historical Fiction fan. With that said though, the pacing of the story is very realistic with the timeline of the Dictionary, so it’s understandable and forgiven. Some of the narrative and plot of the story feels a little disjointed in the second half of the book, like the story lost its way from the original trajectory, so that also threw me off a bit. I resonated a lot more with the first half than the second.I like that each part started with the section of the dictionary that was completed while the plot was taking place alongside the years in which the section occurred. Part 1 started with “Batten - Distrustful”, Part 2 started with “Distrustfully - Kyx”, Part 3 started with “Lap - Nywe”, Part 4 started with “Polygenous - Sorrow”, Part 5 was “Speech - Sullen” and Part 6 is “Wise - Wyzen”. The Dictionary took a LONG time to complete, so noting the story not only by years but by the progress of the Dictionary was really inventive.“Words are our tools of resurrection” - pg 24“It was a mistake for any of us to assume the Scriptorium was not a suitable place to grow and learn. Our thinking was limited by convention (the most subtle but oppressive dictator). Please forgive our lack of imagination.” - pg 97“All words are not equal (and as I write this, I think I see your concern more clearly: if the words of one group are considered worthier of preservation than those of another … well, you have given me pause for thought).” - pg 97“She couldn’t be defined by any of the words I found, and eventually I stopped looking.” - pg 188

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, insightful for anyone especially one fascinated with the English language!

A.C. · June 20, 2022

📚Esme’s life which her Godmother aptly points out as being ‘anything but ordinary’ practically revolved around the Scriptorium and luckily for her, the Scrippy felt “magical”- despite having spent most of her childhood under the table waiting for a slips to get to her. Growing up with her dad, who was devoted to the Scriptorium, it’s “slips” and words, he strived to be both a mother and father to her, according to Ditte, Esme’s wise and worldly godmother.📚Ditte was not only a counsel to Esme over the years but was also a confidante to Esme’s dad. She was also a great believer of his unconventional parenting. Did you know Ditte was based on a real person, Edith Thompson who was involved since the first word was published to the last one in 1928?📚Esme’s unlikely friendship with Lizzie, the maid, and the many deep conversations with her are thought provoking. One particular thought that struck me was Lizzie’s insights that words mean different things to different people. Esme held on to “bondmaid” as a word that was derogatory but to Lizzie, it was a matter of great joy- to be a bondmaid to Esme.📚the book describes the period between 1887 and 1928, poignantly capturing the various milestones and celebrations along the way, in completing the arduous task of publishing the 20 volumes of the Oxford Dictionary. Pip Williams beautifully weaves key events such as the women’s suffrage movement and WW1 during this time.📚Reading the book also led me to do my own research on the history of the dictionary. It has come a long way since Samuel Johnson first published his back in 1755. The dissatisfaction in the dictionaries to date, the quest for obsolete and less common words and quotations and lack of consistency in definitions and synonyms led the Philological society to compile a comprehensive dictionary, telling the history of each and every word in the language📚I have been amazed by the sheer magnitude of the task, the contribution by thousands of people sending in quotations and words, the jobs of the many staff sorting through these “slips” diligently and finding common ground📚While crediting the invaluable contribution made by the Dictionary’s editors starting with Dr James Murray as it’s 1st editor and his incredible teams over the years, the author in portraying Esme’s journey, draws attention to the fact that the dictionary as we know it was mainly the perspective of educated white men, (despite the valuable contribution of women) thereby making Esme’s pursuit for words spoken by women and the marginalised members of society so critical📚the book aptly points out that not only do words mean different things to different people-(brought out in the use of the words bondmaid and “mother”) but also that Of some experiences, the Dictionary would only ever provide an approximation such as sorrow📚the dictionary like the English language is evolving with the second edition having been published in 1989 and the third having commenced in 2000!

5.0 out of 5 stars Look Back to Understand

P.T.A. · January 24, 2026

A gorgeous book with deep threads rooted in history: women’s voice and rights, the pain of war — its separation and sacrifice, the beauty of love, the powerful reward of learning, and the unspoken, secret life of women. Cast from 1886 to 1989, the story covers a vast territory in the evolution of the role of women and the words that made them come to life, remembered and not forgotten. Priceless.

Eines meiner Lieblingsbücher aller Zeiten!

J.W. · June 29, 2025

Eine bezaubernde Geschichte - sehr aussergewöhnlich und sehr empfehlenswert.

excellent read

c. · February 16, 2025

An excellent read about the history of words and their meanings entwined into a story about a woman her life and the characters she meets along the way. I thoroughly recommend this book.

Amazing! Buy it!

J. · December 26, 2025

Amazing bookI cannot stop readingWell written, nice storyVery captivating - live the feminisn through it allHighly recommendI bought it twice for friends

people who worked on the OED

t. · December 20, 2022

OED (Oxford English Dictionary) は、1888年に第1巻(A and B)が出版されて、実に40年後の1928年に最後の第12巻が完成した。本書は、lexicographer (辞書編纂者）をはじめ、それに関った様々な人たちを史実に基づいて追い、そこに創作上の人物を絡ませて、辞書及びその時代の英国そのものの実態を描いた味わい深い良書となっている。主人公の Esme は幼い時に母親が亡くなり、辞書編纂者の父親に育てられる。父親の仕事場(Scriptorium) についていって、大きな仕分け用テーブルの下に潜り込んで過ごしている。たまにひらりと落ちてくる紙片を集め、やがて言葉そのものに興味を持つようになる。そして、いろいろなことを経験しつつ、生涯を辞書作成に捧げるのである。辞書編纂の仕事は収録すべき言葉を一つひとつ選びとり、その用例を集め検証する根気のいる作業だが(三浦しおんの『舟を編む』を彷彿）、当時の英国は男性優位の階級社会であり、それが色濃く辞書にも反映されている。Esme はそれに疑問を持ち、下層社会の巷に行き交う言葉(特に女たちの）を聞きとり集め、ひそかに自分だけの辞書も作ろうとしている。編纂室の主任の家の使用人の Lizzie、街の市場の露天商の女 Mabel、そこで知り合った女優の Tilda、その弟 Bill など、様々な人たちと温かく交流する。特にLizzie とは、困難な時期に支えとなってくれて、生涯の友情が育まれる。辞書編纂に責任を持つ者たちはすべて男性で、女性はassistantに留まるが、一人ひとりの個性（Esmeに優しい人も冷淡な人も）がていねいに描かれていて、興味深い。成長した Esme は、出版局やラドクリフ図書館など、オックスフォードの街を自転車で回り、いろいろな仕事をこなして、信頼を得ていく。Esme には、Bill のこどもを妊娠し、生まれてすぐ里子に出されるという悲しい出来事もあるが、30歳を過ぎて出版局で植字工として働く Gareth と愛しあうようになり、密かに続けている lost words 収集についても共有する。Gareth は Esme のために The Dictionary of Lost Words --Women's Words and Their Meanings-- を製本してくれるのだ。また、父親の親友でかけがえのない協力者でもある Ditti Thompson (Bath 在住で次々と辞書のための言葉を送ってくる）が叔母のような存在で、いつも温かくEsme を見守ってくれている。Ditti から Esme への折々の手紙には心打たれるものがある。19世紀末から20世紀にかけてのこの時代は、女性参政権運動が起こって、穏健派と過激派(Tildaはこれに参加する）が台頭し、やがて第一次世界大戦へと突入していく時代で、これらの事態に、辞書編纂の仕事も影響を受け、Esme の夫 Gareth も戦地に赴くなど、当時の英国の歴史が背景として描かれている。様々なことを経験し、懸命に生きて行く Esme だが、最終章に向かって1989年のエピローグにいたるまでの大きな流れが、読者の心に深く残る。また、巻末の Author's Note で、史実とフィクションについての詳細が示されていて、再び感慨を覚える。余談であるが、本書の邦訳版のタイトルが『小さなことばたちの辞書』となっていることには疑問を感じる。lost はそのまま、失われた、迷子になった、見捨てられた、などの意味合いが望ましい。

I don't like the size difference

w. · April 3, 2025

Smaller than the other book in the series !!

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The Dictionary of Lost Words: Reese's Book Club: A Novel

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The Dictionary of Lost Words: Reese's Book Club: A Novel

Product ID: U1984820745

Condition: New

4.4

(37,102 ratings)

The Dictionary of Lost Words: Reese's Book Club: A Novel-0

Type: Paperback

^AED1,262⁶²

Price includes VAT & Import Duties

Availability: In Stock

Quantity:

Order today to get by 7-14 business days

This item qualifies for free delivery

Returns & Warranty policies

Imported From: United States

At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.

Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.

Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.

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Description:

Review

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

May 1887

“This boy had been a scatter-brained scapegrace from his birth.” Da read the quotation from a slip he had just pulled out of an envelope.

“Am I a scatter-brained scapegrace?” I asked.

“Sometimes,” Da said, tickling me.

Then I asked who the boy was, and Da showed me where it was written at the top of the slip.

“Ala-ed-Din and the Wonderful Lamp,” he read.

When the other assistants arrived I slipped under the sorting table.

“Be quiet as a mouse and stay out of the way,” Da said.

It was easy to stay hidden.

The next day, after helping with the slips, I pestered Da for another story. In my enthusiasm I forgot to be as quiet as a mouse; I was getting in his way.

It was a word, and it slipped off the end of the table. When it lands, I thought, I’ll rescue it, and hand it to Dr. Murray myself.

“Will they all get defined?” I once asked.

“Some will be left out,” Da said.

“Why?”

He paused. “They’re just not solid enough.” I frowned, and he said, “Not enough people have written them down.”

“What happens to the words that are left out?”

“They go back in the pigeon-holes. If there isn’t enough information about them, they’re discarded.”

“But they might be forgotten if they’re not in the Dictionary.”

He’d tilted his head to one side and looked at me, as if I’d said something important. “Yes, they might.”

I knew what happened when a word was discarded. I folded bondmaid carefully and put it in the pocket of my pinny.

A moment later, Da’s face appeared under the sorting table. “Run along now, Esme. Lizzie’s waiting for you.”

“Next time you should come in and find me; it would be more fun,” I said, when I got to Lizzie.

“It’s not me place.” She took my hand and walked me to the shade of the ash tree.

“Where is your place?"

She frowned, then shrugged. “The room at the top of the stairs, I s’pose. The kitchen when I’m helping Mrs. Ballard, but definitely not when I ain’t. St. Mary Magdalen on a Sunday.”

“Is that all?”

“The garden, when I’m caring for you—so we don’t get under Mrs. B’s feet. And more and more the Covered Market, ’cos of her cranky knees.”

“Has Sunnyside always been your place?” I asked.

“Not always.” She looked down at me, and I wondered where her smile had gone.

“Where did it used to be?”

She hesitated. “With me ma and all our littluns.”

“What are littluns?”

“Children.”

“Like me?”

“Like you, Essymay.”

“Are they dead?”

“Just me ma. The littluns was taken away, I don’t know where. They was too young for service.”

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars This novel is a dream read for anyone who loves everything about words!

M.F. · January 19, 2025

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving - a must read!

M. · May 25, 2025

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, insightful for anyone especially one fascinated with the English language!

A.C. · June 20, 2022

5.0 out of 5 stars Look Back to Understand

P.T.A. · January 24, 2026

Eines meiner Lieblingsbücher aller Zeiten!

J.W. · June 29, 2025

Eine bezaubernde Geschichte - sehr aussergewöhnlich und sehr empfehlenswert.

excellent read

c. · February 16, 2025

An excellent read about the history of words and their meanings entwined into a story about a woman her life and the characters she meets along the way. I thoroughly recommend this book.

Amazing! Buy it!

J. · December 26, 2025

Amazing bookI cannot stop readingWell written, nice storyVery captivating - live the feminisn through it allHighly recommendI bought it twice for friends

people who worked on the OED

t. · December 20, 2022

I don't like the size difference

w. · April 3, 2025

Smaller than the other book in the series !!

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