Horrible Words: A Guide to the Misuse of English

Horrible Words: A Guide to the Misuse of English

by RebeccaGowers (Author)

Synopsis

'Stuffed with entertaining detail ... Horrible Words is lively, provocative, witty and enlightening' The Times Nothing inflames the language purists like an illogical irregardless or a hideous otherization. But is it enough simply to dismiss these words as vile and barbarous howlers? Taking a genial tour far and wide through our linguistic badlands, Rebecca Gowers finds answers that are helpful, surprising and often extremely funny. 'Exuberant, erudite, informative and fun ... a call on all English-speakers to trust their own feel for their language, to relish their verbal inventiveness and to do battle against the pedants who tell them they are wrong' Michael Skapinker, Financial Times 'A very useful book, packed with good historical sense' Lynne Truss, The Times

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Edition: 2
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 30 Mar 2017

ISBN 10: 014197897X
ISBN 13: 9780141978970
Book Overview: A brilliant history and witty guide to the English language, masquerading as mischievous advice on its misuse and abuse

Media Reviews
A great delight -- David Crystal
Gowers is fierce, funny and staggeringly well informed -- Alan Connor * Mail on Sunday *
Stuffed with entertaining detail ... Horrible Words is lively, provocative, witty and enlightening * The Times *
Exuberant and stimulating ... erudite, informative and fun * Financial Times *
Witty ... wry ... As a heretic, Gowers cuts a formidable figure * The Times Literary Supplement *
A very useful book, packed with good historical sense -- Lynne Truss * The Times *
A joy - informative and irreverent -- Caroline Taggart
Witty and erudite ... A splendid antidote to small-minded pedantry -- Robbie Millen * The Times *
Will have you enraptured by etymology ... Hugely enjoyable * Reader's Digest *
Author Bio
Rebecca Gowers is the author of The Swamp of Death, shortlisted for the CWA non-fiction Golden Dagger Award, and of two novels, When to Walk and The Twisted Heart, both longlisted for the Orange Prize. She is also the most recent editor of Plain Words, the classic guide to the use of English by her great-grandfather Sir Ernest Gowers.