Spellbound: The Improbable Story of English Spelling: The True Story of Man's Greatest Invention

I've been fascinated by language & it's development for most of my life & have read quite a few books on the subject over the years

This one is light, easy-going & fun, kind of Bill Brysonesque

I'd have given it five stars but for a repeated error, it's a small one & has little to do with the author's obvious expertise in his field, but for me it indicates sloppy research
He refers to Irvine Welsh's book Trainspotting & claims that it's set in Glasgow ... it's not, it's set in Edinburgh
which might not mean a lot to anyone other than a Scot, but it's like saying a novel set in London is set in Birmingham or Newcastle

I quote another reviewer, Born Again Cruciverbalist "Geoff"
"We can't all be experts in everything but this one glaring error leads me to wonder whether there are other factual errors that James Essinger has perhaps unwittingly committed"

Apart from that complaint, I recommend it as a highly entertaining read

In this splendid book, James Essinger tells the fascinating story of the evolution of English Language and spelling.

Over the course of around 250 pages the reader is treated to an educational journey encompassing a variety of topics including early writing forms such as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, different forms of alphabets (with particular reference to our own), the historical roots of the English language, with emphasis on pivotal events such as the Normandy invasion of 1066, the development of the first dictionaries, and lots more. He even finishes up by discussing modern-day phenomena such as mobile phone text-messaging, which has arguably become a language of its own, barely recognisible from plain written English.

Essinger's writing style is lucid and highly readable. The book contains a wealth of information, without ever becoming dry or tedious. I have no hesitation in awarding it the full five stars.

A book on language is not something I'd normally take to the beach with me. Stumbling upon Spellbound at the airport bookshop I read it on holiday, and was glad of my impulse to buy it. The author has clearly done his homework and distilled what must have been some pretty painstaking and arduous research (we are after all talking the past four thousand years or so of human history) into a pacey, fact-filled, often funny and easily digestible read. This book traces the origins of much-used English words from beginnings as wide-ranging as hieroglyphs, ancient runes and even the Eskimo, Basque and Mongolian languages. All in all, quite unputdownable.

I found this a fascinating and very enjoyable book. Essinger manages to combine the facts and history of the English language with humour and a tone that makes the subject matter easy to understand, interesting and fun.

I enjoyed reading this book, though I had previously read several other works on the English Language. It's a good book for beginners on this topic but even knowledgeable readers may learn something new from it.

I came across one factual error. In the section on Gothic words it says that "the word wairpan, 'to throw' is connected with the modern English word 'warp' which means the threads 'thrown' across a loom". But the thread thrown to and fro across the loom is called weft. The warp threads run along the length of the fabric.

I should know. I spent three years studying textiles at Leeds University then spent some time in a weaving shed containing 900 looms. You couldn't hear yourself think, let alone talk. But everyone there knew the difference between warp and weft.

We can't all be experts in everything but this one glaring error leads me to wonder whether there are other factual errors that James Essinger has perhaps unwittingly committed.

Despite the error, I can recommend this book as a good read.