Fiction & Poetry, Modern & Contemporary Fiction
The Dictionary of Lost Words

The Dictionary of Lost Words

Paperback Published on: 20/01/2022
£9.99
10 reviews
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Bookseller Reviews

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The Dictionary of Lost Words
Extraordinary and Poignant
A truly captivating and fascinating read! A book was like nothing I've ever read before. It follows Esme her love of words and how the first Oxford English... READ MORE
Sadie

Synopsis

Sometimes you have to start with what's lost to truly find yourself...

Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood at her father's feet as he and his team gather words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.

One day, she sees a slip of paper containing a forgotten word flutter to the floor unclaimed. And so Esme begins to collect words for another dictionary in secret: The Dictionary of Lost Words. But to do so she must journey into a world on the cusp of change as the Great War looms and women fight for the vote. Can the power of lost words from the past finally help her make sense of her future?

Publisher information

  • Publisher: Vintage Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781529113228
  • Number of pages: 432
  • Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 27 mm
  • Weight: 343g
  • Languages: English

Customer Reviews

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The Dictionary of Lost Words
Enchanting
How we all dreamed of finding Narnia ..... And how I wished that Pip Williams would have written two books instead of the one! The first book: Esme’s chil... READ MORE
Tina
The Dictionary of Lost Words
Enchanting
How we all dreamed of finding Narnia ..... And how I wished that Pip Williams would have written two books instead of the one! The first book: Esme’s chil... READ MORE
Tina
The Dictionary of Lost Words
Forgotten words, nearly forgotten women
The First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was originally published in printed instalments known as ‘fascicles.’ The process took more than 44 year... READ MORE
Mark Rasdall
The Dictionary of Lost Words
A lovely story
This is a story about a group of men in Oxford, working from an outbuilding in the garden, putting together the first English dictionary. An interesting st... READ MORE
@SezzThomas
The Dictionary of Lost Words
A real joy of a read
Oh I loved this book - such a unique setting and plot
Nina Bursell
The Dictionary of Lost Words
Book club reading
I read this as part of a book club. It took a while to get into it but by the final chapter I didn’t want it to end.
helen anwyl
The Dictionary of Lost Words
If you love books, words, and history, you will fall in love with this novel.
The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams is a beautiful historical novel that captivated me from the start. I love stories, I adore beautiful words, an... READ MORE
Alis Page
The Dictionary of Lost Words
Beautiful
Just finished this and it is beautiful. Never read anything like it. It’s set in real history with the compilation of the OED but with a fictional storylin... READ MORE
Natalie
The Dictionary of Lost Words
For Souls that find Themselves
A story that stretches through the many decades that weaved the first Oxford English Dictionary. The tale of the heroine unravels between the pages of the ... READ MORE
P.H. Maddie