Last Word - Tales From the Tip of the Mother Tongue by MacIntyre, Ben - 2010

Bloomsbury. New. 2010. Paperback. 1408804352 . This specific paperback book is in new condition with a cover that has sharp edges and corners and has a tight binding. The pages are clean, crisp, unmarked and uncreased. We package all books in custom cardboard book boxes for shipment and ship daily with tracking numbers.; "The author writes pieces about a wide variety of things including the derivation of nursery rhymes, the origin of pigeon English, invented and resurrected words, words imported from other languages, making words from initials, the size of your vocabulary, literary Darwinism, and strange bookshops among many others. There must be over one hundred different pieces and I found each of them interesting - and if you don't find one to your taste then there will be another one very soon. I have a general interest in words and language and have read similar books before (by Lynne Truss, John Humphrys, Bill Bryson, and others) but there was plenty to engage and amuse me and lots of interesting, and possibly useless, things to learn here. The book doesn't talk down to the reader but it isn't by any stretch of the imagination an academic book. It is written in an entertaining style with a wry humour."; Oblong Small 8vo 7½" - 8" tall; 314 pages .