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The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.

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Lovetopaint037 Wed 10-Apr-24 20:00:01

I have nearly finished it and have found it fascinating. It is based on the true story of how the first edition of the Oxford dictionary was compiled over several years. It covers the late 1880’s through to the end of the First World War. The main character is fictional but she is placed in the midst of the compilation in Oxford and other problems of the time.it is a story of love, loss and the importance of words of all kinds and how they affected a motherless girl and those around her. It is unusual, emotional and a history lesson.Wondering if others have read it and whether they too enjoyed it. I expect others may have different opinions.

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Callistemon21 Wed 10-Apr-24 20:10:29

It sounds really interesting, I'll add it to my wish list, thank you 🙂

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Grannytomany Wed 10-Apr-24 22:38:21

I read it quite recently and although I found the compilation of the dictionary interesting I didn’t rate the book very highly I’m afraid because too many things struck me as being highly improbable given the time the book was set in. I found the woman’s dictionary of dirty words (not sure how else to describe it) especially unlikely .

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Lovetopaint037 Thu 11-Apr-24 09:28:27

Sorry you didn’t rate it Grannytomany . I really enjoyed it and have just bought the sequel about the book binders of Jericho which was part of the University Press. I hope it will be as interesting.

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AliBeeee Tue 30-Apr-24 11:16:32

I read it a couple of weeks ago and loved it. One of my top books of the year so far.

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