Penguin Books Australia

We live in a torrent of words - from radio and television, books and newspapers, and now from the internet. But, as Julian Burnside reminds us in this new edition of the best-selling Wordwatching , words are a source both of pleasure and power, and can be deployed for good or for ill.

Why does language move some of us to anxiety or even rage?

For centuries, sticklers have donned the cloak of authority to control how people use words. In this sensational new book, Robert Lane Greene strikes back to defend the fascinating, real-life diversity of this most basic human faculty. Along the way, he corrects Bill Bryson's 'facts' about words, challenges the rhetoric of Lynne Truss's bestselling...

'SWEEPINGLY LEARNED AND ENGAGINGLY GARRULOUS . . .
Sunday Times

'A MUCH-NEEDED CHALLENGE TO CONVENTIONAL WISDOM'
Guardian

A great speech has the power to define the times, to inspire, to stir and to motivate.

This collection of ancient and modern speeches includes the words of activists, politicians, philosophers and scores of  others who have born witness to significant moments from the first century to the twenty-first. Many have themselves made history.

Here you'll find the words of:

Can you be gruntled ? Who was the original dogsbody ? And why would you have the screaming ab-dabs ?

Long-time word detective Michael Quinion brings us the answers to nearly 200 of the most intriguing questions he's been asked about language over the years. His facts about the quirky meanings and histories behind the slang and language that we all use will delight, amuse and enlighten even the most...

'A lingua franca is a language of convenience.  When it ceases to be convenient – however widespread it has been – it will be dropped, without ceremony, and with little emotion.'
NICHOLAS OSTLER

The Last Lingua Franca is a fascinating and provocative examination of the rise and coming fall of English as the world's language.