The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams is the tale of Esme, a child growing up without a mother but whose closeness to her father is very touching. She spends her childhood at her father's feet while he works on gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Over time, she rescues "lost words" that are dropped or not being included and keeps them safe in a box. In her teens, and with the aid of a great array of extraordinary females including Lizzie, a servant who is a substitute mother, Ditte her aunt and Tilde, an actress, she realises that the majority of these words are "female" words and are often deemed vulgar. It becomes apparent that this huge and esteemed project of capturing the English language is being edited and skewed by the compilers - middle class, highly educated white men. So Esme seeks out the words that are in common use in the market or pubs and she adds them to her collection. Over the course of time, she has a child out of wedlock, who is adopted, which she never really gets over. However, love does come calling later on in life in the form of Gareth who works at the printers. He takes the words she has collected and creates The Dictionary of Lost Words, especially for her before he heads off to fight in the First World War. This is a book full of melancholy and loss - for words, for innocence and for lives cut down too soon. However, it is also full of hope and determination and the guiding principle that many things deserve to be remembered and celebrated. It is also a tribute to the brave, formidable and indeed the quiet women who were fighting for the right to vote in Great Britain at that time in their own way. A really enjoyable read on many levels and definitely one that I would recommend.
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 412 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio, ebook.
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