Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story [Paperback] Michael Rosen (author) - Softcover

Michael Rosen (Author)

3.63

613 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1848548885 ISBN 13: 9781848548886

Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd, 2014

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Alphabetical

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About the Author:

Michael Rosen was born in 1946 in North London and read English at Oxford. He is a former Children's Laureate and is the bestselling author of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, which won the Smarties Best Book of the Year Award, and many other books. He presents Word of Mouth on BBC Radio 4. This is the book he has always wanted to write.

Review:

[Michael Rosen's] beguiling journey through the alphabet will entrance anyone interested in the quirks of language and its history ... Rosen has written a charming and thought-provoking book about what written language represents, how we use it, and the joys and mysteries therein. His humor and obvious love for his subject are winning elements Publishers Weekly Enjoyable history of the alphabet The Times Substantial and engaging Guardian Forget party crackers - when you settle down to the turkey and trimmings this year simply make sure you have this book to hand. There's even a chapter devoted to family friendly alphabet games: perfect for playing after the Queen's been on. That letters can and should be fun, not just functional, is one of the main messages of this book Sunday Telegraph The perfect book for anyone who relishes the intricacies of language and letters ... [Rosen] reveals a gift for seamlessly meshing hard information, personal anecdote, jokes and puzzles with educational, cultural and linguistic questions and wry, pointed, observations ... There are delights in this book for all ages Australian [Michael Rosen] gives each letter a neat CV ... enjoyable The Times

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PublisherJohn Murray Publishers Ltd
Publication date2014
ISBN 10 1848548885
ISBN 13 9781848548886
BindingPaperback
Number of pages447
Rating
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9781848548862: Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story

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ISBN 10: 1848548869 ISBN 13: 9781848548862
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Alphabetical (Paperback)

Michael Rosen

Published by John Murray Press, London (2014)

ISBN 10: 1848548885 ISBN 13: 9781848548886

New Paperback Quantity: 1

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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. From minding your Ps and Qs to wondering why X should mark the spot, Alphabetical is a book for everyone who loves words and language. Whether it's how letters are arranged on keyboards or Viking runes, textspeak or zip codes, this book will change the way you think about letters for ever. How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the history of the alphabet in twenty-six vivid chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and how sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the strange story of OK, traces our seven lost letters and tackles the tyranny of spelling, among many, many other things. His heroes of the alphabet range from Edward Lear to Phyllis Pearsall (the inventor of the A-Z), and from the two scribes of Beowulf to rappers. Each chapter takes on a different subject - codes, umlauts or the writing of dictionaries. Rosen's enthusiasm for letters positively leaps off the page, whether it's the story of his life told through the typewriters he's owned or a chapter on jokes written in a string of gags and word games. So if you ever wondered why Hawaiian only has a thirteen-letter alphabet or how exactly to write down the sound of a wild raspberry, read on . . . From Alphabets to Zipcodes, the surprising story of our 26 letters from million-selling author and Radio 4 language expert, Michael Rosen. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781848548886

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Alphabetical

Michael Rosen

Published by John Murray Press 2014-04-24, London (2014)

ISBN 10: 1848548885 ISBN 13: 9781848548886

New paperback Quantity: 5

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Blackwell's
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781848548886

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