Book 27/30.
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and endlessly curious, she grows up in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the first Oxford English Dictionary. Hidden beneath the sorting table, young Esme watches their work in silence. When a slip of paper bearing the word “bondmaid” falls to the floor, she saves it and discovers that it means “slave girl.” This becomes the beginning of her own collection of words that the dictionary makers have overlooked or discarded.
As Esme grows older, she realizes that many words connected to the lives and experiences of women and ordinary people are missing from the official dictionary. Determined to preserve these forgotten voices, she begins creating her own Dictionary of Lost Words. To find them, she must leave the sheltered world of Oxford and seek out the people whose language and stories have been ignored.
Set against the women’s suffrage movement and the approaching Great War, The Dictionary of Lost Words uncovers a forgotten narrative hidden within a history largely recorded by men. Inspired by the real creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, Pip Williams draws on its archives to tell the story of the words—and the people—left out of history.
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing