'Precise, concentrated, lyrical. No one writes like Lydia Davis, and everyone should read her'

Gowers is fierce, funny and staggeringly well informed

Stuffed with entertaining detail ... Horrible Words is lively, provocative, witty and enlightening

Exuberant and stimulating ... erudite, informative and fun

Witty ... wry ... As a heretic, Gowers cuts a formidable figure

A very useful book, packed with good historical sense

A joy - informative and irreverent

Witty and erudite ... A splendid antidote to small-minded pedantry

Will have you enraptured by etymology ... Hugely enjoyable

An enchanting story about love, loss and the power of language, what gets recorded and what gets forgotten. Set at a time when women's voices were clamouring more than ever to be heard, it moved me greatly to think how history is skewed by those who hold power -- and how important it is that novels like this redress that balance

What a novel of words, their adventure and their capacity to define and, above all, challenge the world. There will not be this year a more original novel published. I just know it

Inspired by a wisp of fact - a single word accidentally omitted from the Oxford English Dictionary - Pip Williams has spun a marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress. This is a novel that brings to light not only lost words, but the lost stories of women's lives. It is at once timely and timeless.

In the annals of lexicography, no more imaginative, delightful, charming and clever book has yet been written. And if by writing it Pip Williams has gently rapped my knuckles for wrongly supposing that only white English men led the effort to corral and codify our language, then I happily accept the scolding. Her wonderfully constructed story has helped entirely change my mind.

This charming, inventive, and utterly irresistible novel is the story we all need right now. Words have never mattered more, as Pip Williams illuminates in her unforgettable debut

What a compelling, fresh look at historical women! Lyrically written... This marvellous exploration into the ways in which spoken and written language impact us is a delight and an education

Williams turns history as we know it on its head in this delightful debut, spotlighting those women and their contributions, using the awe-inspiring power of words themselves to illuminate them

In Williams's exuberant, meticulously researched debut, the daughter of a lexicographer devotes her life to an alternative dictionary... Deeply satisfying. Williams's feminist take on language will move readers

The Herculean efforts required to assemble the Oxford English Dictionary are retold, this time from a fictionalized, distaff point of view, in Williams' debut novel. ...Underlying this panoramic account are lexicographical and philosophical interrogatives: Who owns language, does language reflect or affect, who chooses what is appropriate, why is one meaning worthier than another, what happens when a word mutates in meaning? ...The result is a satisfying amalgam of truth and historical fiction

Do words mean different things to men and women? That is the question at the heart of Williams' thoughtful and gentle first novel based on original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives... A lexicographer's dream of a novel, this is a lovely book to get lost in, an imaginative love letter to dictionaries

[The Dictionary of Lost Words] was so excellent, and is the story we all need right now. Shining on important light on the lost stories of women's lives, it was hugely thought-provoking

Enchanting, sorrowful, and wonderfully written, the book is a one-of-a-kind celebration of languageand its importance in our lives. A must-have

The Dictionary of Lost Words concerns itself with the gaps between the lines of the dominant male narrative, choosing instead the usually overlooked, everyday language of ordinary women. It's a masterfully written, beautiful first novel that tells a fascinating story of language, love and loss

An utterly compelling and beautiful story that effortlessly merges history, gender politics, love and loss. To say this book is ambitious is an understatement, but Williams delivers brilliantly, and whilst I enjoyed the story in itself, the book has prompted me to want to discover more about this history and context of the OED... Without doubt, this is my favourite book of the year so far and, I suspect, it will be in the running come the end of the year too

This thought-provoking and atmospheric novel about dictionaries will have you enthralled... A gorgeous story about women, the power of language and an insight into the work of lexicographers

Seamlessly blending fact and fiction, this is a beautifully crafted book, filled with memorable characters

Real and fictional timeliness are intertwined in this inventive new novel

An elegantly constructed love story full of memorable characters... Pippa Bennett-Warner captures them all, and her warm, slightly husky voice enhances the magic