10% off all books and free delivery over £40
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

Planet Word

View All Editions (1)

The selected edition of this book is not available to buy right now.
Add To Wishlist
Write A Review

About

Planet Word Synopsis

'The way you speak is who you are and the tones of your voice and the tricks of your emailing and tweeting and letter-writing, can be recognised unmistakably in the minds of those who know and love you.' Stephen Fry.

 

From feral children to fairy-tale princesses, secrets codes, invented languages - even a language that was eaten - Planet Word uncovers everything you didn't know you needed to know about how language evolves. Learn the tricks to political propaganda, why we can talk but animals can't, discover 3,000-year-old clay tablets that discussed beer and impotence and test yourself at textese - do you know your RMEs from your LOLs? Meet the 105-year-old man who invented modern-day Chinese and all but eradicated illiteracy, and find out why language caused the go-light in Japan to be blue. From the dusty scrolls of the past to the unknown digital future, and with (heart) the first graphic to enter the OED, are we already well on our way to a language without words?

About This Edition

ISBN: 9780718157746
Publication date:
Author: Stephen Fry
Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Hardback
Pagination: 444 pages
Primary Genre Non-Fiction Books of the Month
Other Genres:
Recommendations:

Press Reviews

Author

Competitions Related To This Book

You Might Also Like...

Aleph

Paulo Coelho

Paperback

In Stock

£8.99 £9.99

We Should All be Feminists

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Paperback

In Stock

£7.19 £7.99

How to Be a Husband

Tim Dowling

Paperback

In Stock

£9.89 £10.99

Black and Blue

Parm Sandhu

Paperback

In Stock

£9.89 £10.99

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Hardback

Pre-order. 3rd July 2025

£11.69 £12.99

Not Quite World's End

John Simpson

Paperback

Print on Demand / Special Order

£17.09 £18.99