Review – Spell It Out: The singular story of English spelling #Writing #Language #English

Tags

English Language, History, Language, meaning of words, Reviews, Reviews 2018, Words, Writing

Spell it Out UK Amazon print

Spell it Out Amazon Kindle UK

5 Stars.

Spell It Out: The singular story of English Spelling – David Crystal.

Why is there an ‘h’ in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike.

He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth-century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.

You can tell I’m a logophile (lover of words), as this book really appealed to me.  I love the vagaries of English, the whys and wherefores, the ‘really – that’s spelled like that?’ and the etymology of language. This book is a great resource – it covers the history of the English Language, and the ‘rules of spelling’ – many of which get defenestrated at every available opportunity. Crystal explains why.

English is a very confusing language – and I’m a native speaker! Similar sounds – such as ‘ou’ or ‘gh’ can be used in a large variety of words with different pronunciations:

(Spelling in red) coff as in cough; ow as in bough; ruff as in rough; thru as in through; doh as in doughnut. 

Thorough, plough, tough, borough etc.

And we have the one everyone knows – I before E except after C… unless … well Wiki has a whole page of them:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_words_not_following_the_I_before_E_except_after_C_rule.

There are reasons – from lazy scribes to printers being things look nice, to foreign words being adulterated, to regional differences to text speak. It all makes sense (sort of).

Crystal keeps the book interesting, easy to understand and amusing. He knows his stuff, and it shows. I found it fascinating, and will definitely get the author’s other work. Mr Crystal – you have a new fan.

Recommended for logophiles, writers, and the curious.

 

 

Advertisements

Review – Poisoned Lives: English Poisoners and Their Victims – Crime/History/English History

Tags

Crime, English History, History, Poisons, Reviews, Reviews 2018

Poisoned Lives: English Poisoners and their Victims – by Katherine Watson

Synopsis

From Mary Ann Cotton, the Victorian serial murderess, to Dr Crippen, poisoners have attracted a celebrity unmatched by violent killers. Secretly administered, often during a family meal, arsenic (the most commonly-used poison) led to a slow and agonising death, while strychnine (with its characteristic bitter taste) killed very quickly. Poisoned Lives is the first history of the crime to examine poisoning and its consequences as a whole. Unwanted husbands, wives or lovers, illegitimate babies, children killed for the insurance money, relatives, rivals and employers were amongst the many victims of these calculating killers. Difficult to detect before 1800, poison undoubtedly had its heyday in the nineteenth century. In response to many suspected cases, forensic tests were developed that made detection increasingly likely, and the sale of poisons became more tightly controlled. Because of this, twentieth-century poisoning has become a crime largely associated with medical professionals including, most recently, Dr Harold Shipman, the world’s most prolific serial killer.

5 stars

Many of the true crime books focus solely on the murders themselves, as one would expect. Usually the same twenty or so crimes are discussed and not often in detail. This book is different. Over 500 cases from 19th century to the early 20th century are included, although many as comparisons and not in detail. That said the author does a great job of discussing the ‘whys and wherefores’ of the crimes – the societal aspects, how they changed, the rise of the police force, and the increased awareness of poisoning as a crime. Before the 1900s sanitary conditions amongst the poor were dire, life expectancy short and infant mortality high. Many of the cases discussed, and the situations covered reflect this – people poisoning as to not have another mouth to feed, to get a few pounds from the ‘burial clubs’ which sprang up, ostensibly to help the poor, and the new ‘life insurance’ schemes which abounded. Poisoning is viewed as the most despicable of crimes; usually it is a slow and very painful process, and often the perpetrator is well known to the victim – spouse, parent, servant, nurse/doctor. It’s easy to judge by the modern standards when life expectation is relatively high, health provision freely available (in the UK at least), a social security system, divorce attainable, much less stigma on illegitimacy and very few people are truly desperately poor. Oh and poison is much harder to get. But one must realise that sometimes disposal of an unwanted, violent spouse, was the only way out some people could see. There were simply no viable alternatives.

Watson discusses the changing views and social ideas – the emerging rights of women; ideas pertaining towards mental illness; religious and moral ideology and the rise of the forensic scientist, the role of the coroner and much more. It’s a potted history which changes vastly over time.  This, I think, is the most fascinating aspect. There is no sensationalisation of the cases – which sometimes appears in books on true crime – the subjects are dealt with in a sympathetic way. It’s a book of tragedy – lost lives, destroyed lives, desperation and the depths of human misery, but there is also hope. Murder by poison is rare now and more easily diagnosed. And society is not as brutish, or terrifying as once it was for the common person.

Well researched, well argued and highly interesting I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime, 19th Century history, the rise of science and the social reasons for crime.

 

Review – Brighton Crime and Vice #Truecrime #British History

Tags

British History, Reviews, Reviews 2018, true crime

Brighton Crime and Vice

3 stars.

I tend to like this local, more specific true crime books. The general true crime anthologies often cover the same cases/criminals so these localised ones reveal the activities of the more obscure criminals.

The book covers 200 years and features murder, manslaughter, abortion (which was illegal until 1967), wife beating, husband slaughter, theft (often of minor items) and more. Most of the accounts are presented well-enough with a bit of history around the case, and the outcomes (most of which were execution, transportation, or imprisonment). Many of the cases are tragic – unmarried mothers trying to dispose of unwanted babies in a time when single-motherhood could ruin a girl and occupations for women were extremely limited. Some of the perpetrators of these crimes were insane, or of diminished responsibility, but until the late 19th Century such matters were barely recognised.

It’s a good account of crime in the area. Although some of the accounts are a little short, and get a bit tedious.

So why the relatively low rating? Now I don’t often mark down a book for typos – but this book had a lot. All the way through. There was a repeated paragraph and mistakes on every other page.

 

Review – The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett #Fantasy

Tags

Fantasy, Reviews, Reviews 2018, Terry Pratchett

Here’s the first review of 2018. It’s a short one

 

The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett

It’s been a while since I read this one – and I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it. That said it’s not the best of the Discworld books, but I can’t quite put my finger on why.  Fifth Elephant is the 24^th Discworld and 5^th City Watch book, with my favourite character – Sam Vimes. When Sir Samuel Vimes is sent as Ambassador to the coronation of the new Dwarven King what could possibly go wrong? For a start, he is in the middle of investigating the theft of a Dwarven artefact and the murder of a manufacturer of ‘rubber’ goods. Then there is politics – possibly the biggest crime of all. Dwarven Faction wars, racial tensions, werewolves, vampires, assassins and more. It’s a normal day at the office for the Watch.

It’s a fun read, with a lot of Pratchett’s sharp wit, clever worldbuilding, and awesome characters. It does meander a little in places, though.  Even so I’d recommend for fantasy readers. As it’s exciting and full of action.