In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.

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Picked up at the Templestowe meetup, onto my TBR pile

Interesting read, passed onto Anne/Edwardstreet at the special meetup today

A wonderful surprise at the meetup Megan organised in Melbourne for this Kiwi visitor. Thank you.

This is actually still in my hands I caught it, before it was released.
I have started it tonight and am struggling to stop, it is lovely, but alas it is midnight and I need my beauty sleep.

Wonderful book, off as a Wishlist tag to a very active bookcrosser.
I hope to meet you at the Australia NZ Uncon in Oct. You would love mtg people who you only know through this site.
We are a friendly bunch.

Caught today - was surprised to find anything in my letterbox considering the Cyclone we've just had! It arrived before the power came back on (we'd been powerless 9am Tuesday until around 3pm today (Monday)). So glad to receive this book thank you Edwardstreet, it looks right up my alley once it descends Mt TBR! As for attending the Uncon - for me it would require winning a vast amount of money. I don't have a vehicle, nor drive, and currently we struggle just to scrape together enough money for groceries. My not coming isn't for lack of enthusiasm. One day it might be in my neck of the woods but for now, alas, it is not...