“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.”
I was drawn into the story immediately by the innocence and cleverness of young Esme, the main character, and she held my interest as she aged, the whole while never losing her passion for the English language and her work to bring words and their meaning to life. I learned new words myself, including where Esme worked, the Scriptorium (I never heard that word before), or one of the most meaningful words in the story: Bondmaid. I love how the author took historical fact and weaved it into a fictional story with well-developed characters. I feel like I learned something about the trials and tribulations surrounding the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and, as a writer myself, I feel inspired by this story. I don't normally bother with the 'Author's Notes' at the end, but in this case, I'm glad I did. I enjoyed hearing the research that went into Pip Williams learning more about the process and people behind the earliest English dictionary, and sadly, the lost voices of women, and applaud her for bringing this forward in a clever, entertaining and, at times, heart-breaking way.