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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson  (203)  £6.99

Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson  (70)  £6.94

Shakespeare: The World as a Stage (Eminent Lives) by Bill Bryson  (35)  £3.86

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson  (129)  £6.99

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Amazon.co.uk Review
Who would have thought that a book about the English language would be so entertaining? Certainly not this grammar-allergic reviewer, but The Mother Tongue pulls it off admirably. Bill Bryson--a zealot--is the right man for the job. Who else could rhapsodise about "the colourless murmur of the schwa" with a straight face? It is his unflagging enthusiasm, seeping from between every sentence, that carries the book.

Bryson displays an encyclopedic knowledge of his topic, and this inevitably encourages a light tone; the more you know about a subject, the more absurd it becomes. No jokes are necessary, the facts do well enough by themselves, and Bryson supplies tens per page. As well as tossing off gems of fractured English (from a Japanese eraser: "This product will self- destruct in Mother Earth."), Bryson frequently takes time to compare the idiosyncratic tongue with other languages. Not only does this give a laugh (one word: Welsh), and always shed considerable light, it also makes the reader feel fortunate to speak English.

Synopsis
How did English, 'treated for centuries as the inadequate and second-rate tongue of peasants' become the undisputed global language? How did words like shampoo, sofa and rowdy (and others drawn from over fifty languages) find their way into our dictionary? In this revealing and often hilarious book, Bill Bryson examines the mother tongue and explores the countless varieties of English and the perils of marketing brands with names like Pschitt and Super Piss. With entertaining sections on the oddities of swearing and spelling, spoonerisms and Scrabble, and a consideration of what we mean by 'good English', "Mother Tongue" is one of the most stimulating books yet written on this endlessly engrossing subject.

Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson  (11)  £6.74

Shakespeare: The World as a Stage (Eminent Lives) by Bill Bryson  (35)  £3.86

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson  (203)  £6.99

Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe by Bill Bryson  (70)  £6.94

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson  (129)  £6.99

› Explore similar items : Books (41)

47 Reviews 5 star:  (13) 4 star:  (14) 3 star:  (12) 2 star:  (4) 1 star:  (4)           Average Customer Review (47 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   16 of 17 people found the following review helpful: Brilliantly entertaining stuff, 20 April 2001 By A Customer Once again, Billy Bryson at his best. This time,he doesn't take the reader on a tour of Europe or America or elsewhere, it's rather a journey through the history and the different aspects of the English language.The book is, I must confess, highly informative even to a former student of English philology like myself. Let's forget about the odd spelling mistake of foreign words or some ill-qualified remarks about other languages which Bryson drops-this book is still one of the most interesting non-fiction works I have ever read, and I can simply recommend it to anyone who loves (or hates) English.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   30 of 33 people found the following review helpful: Bryson makes me proud to be an Anglophone, 3 Aug 2001 By  William P. Doyle, III (Hingham, MA USA) - See all my reviews    While browsing in the linguistics section at a London bookshop, I came across this book. I had never heard of Bryson before, but the description on the back sounded so interesting, I bought it. Having just finished the book, I can only wonder how I managed to miss this guy's stuff all my life. This book is a fascinating journey through the history of English, the varieties of English in the world, spelling, pronunciation, and more. Bryson's style is fresh, funny, irreverent, and absorbing. I feel like I have found someone who loves nuance in language as much as I do, and is spot on when it comes to examining exactly the subtleties that get me fired up. Highly recommended to Anglophones interested in learning more about the language we call our own.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   24 of 27 people found the following review helpful: A Delight, 3 April 1999 By A Customer This is the first of Bill Bryson's books that I have read and it was a delight. In a completely non-academic way the author traces the origins of the English language and its development up to the present. M