The Adventure Of English

Author: Melvyn Bragg

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $24.99 AUD
  • : 9780340829936
  • : Hodder & Stoughton
  • : Sceptre
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  • : 0.27
  • : July 2004
  • : 197mm X 129mm X 25mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 24.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Melvyn Bragg
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  • : Paperback
  • : 405
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  • : English
  • : 420.9
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  • :
  • : 368
  • : Historical & comparative linguistics
  • : 16 photos
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Barcode 9780340829936
9780340829936

Description

English is the collective work of millions of people throughout the ages. It is democratic, ever-changing and ingenious in its assimilation of other cultures. English runs through the heart of world finance, medicine and the Internet, and it is understood by around two thousand million people across the world. Yet it was very nearly wiped out in its early years. In this book Melvyn Bragg shows us the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. THE ADVENTURE OF ENGLISH is not only an enthralling story of power, religion and trade, but also the story of people, and how their day-to-day lives shaped and continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.

Promotion info

Melvyn Bragg's fascinating biography of the English language

Author description

Melvyn Bragg's first novel, For Want of a Nail, was published in 1965 and since then his novels have included The Hired Man, for which he won the Time/Life Silver Pen Award, Without a City Wall, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Credo, The Maid of Buttermere and The Soldier's Return, which was published to huge critical acclaim in 1999 and won the WHSmith Literary Award. He has also written several works of non-fiction including Speak for England, an oral history of the twentieth century, Rich, a biography of Richard Burton and On Giants' Shoulders, a history of science based on his BBC radio series. He was born in 1939 and educated at Wigton's Nelson Tomlinson Shool and at Oxford where he read history. He is controller of Arts at LWT and President of the National Campaign for the Arts, and in 1998 he was made a life peer. He lives in London and Cumbria.