It feels strange to imagine the dictionary being put together; collecting each word in the English language and attaching meaning to it, ensuring all variations of meaning are included, and deciding which words are important enough to include, and which aren’t. A relentless, thankless, and most likely never ending task.

Esme’s father works in the Scriptorium, helping to complete this mammoth piece of work. We follow Esme from childhood, sitting underneath the table examining the employees’ shoes, to adulthood, working herself towards the completion of the dictionary.

Her focus soon rests on the words the men have chosen to omit from the dictionary, rather than those they choose to keep. Slang words, swear words, words only used by women, words given a different meaning by women, words the men simply did not believe warranted a home within their great work. It was gorgeous to follow along with Esme as she collected these lost words, speaking with women from different classes, all with different experiences, and recording the way they spoke. There’s some really good commentary here on who gets to decide which words are important, or even who gets to define them.

The first third of the novel was slow, and difficult to engage with. Williams takes her time in setting her scene, and establishing her characters, but I did feel it could have benefitted from a little bit of urgency. The chapter titles help us understand which part of history we’re exploring, but the prose itself doesn’t lend itself to historical fiction until further in the book. Until then (unless you’re well-versed on the history and origins of the dictionary), we could have been dealing with any moment in time.

As we progressed, the plot became much more engaging, however Williams had an odd tendency to create events within the plot which we weren’t given permission to experience first-hand. There were some really important things which happened, and we didn’t learn of them until we stumbled across a memory, or a bit of dialogue. Although I believe interpretation is important, and being modest as an author can lead to some real intrigue, I really felt some of these events had enough merit to be laid out in full for the reader.

Nevertheless, a wonderful premise, and a heartbreaking view of an entire life dedicated to the importance of words.

A fascination blend of fact and fiction. In 1857 Dr James Murray, a resident of Oxford and a great believer in the English language and words, was asked to produce a New English Dictionary.

We meet him and his team of researchers, working in an outbuilding in his garden, in February 1886., and are busy finalising the first book comprising A and B. His right-hand man, Mr Nichols (a widower), often has his young daughter Esme with him and she becomes a central figure in this story. When not in “The Scriptorium”, as the building is known, she can often be found in the kitchen of the Murray house with Mrs Ballard, the cook, and Lizzie, their maid. Between them they become ‘mother’ and ‘older sister’ figures.

Esme, or Essymay as she is fondly known, is fascinated by the words that are being investigated. They are always written on special sized slips of paper which are often dropped and she delights in gathering them up - and occasionally pocketing one to keep.

The years pass with highs and lows for Esme, who at one time needs to leave Oxford and spends several months with her godmother, Aunt Ditte. Volumes of the dictionary continue to be published, the Suffrage movement is busy with demonstrations and finally Esme finds love, but will it last? Readers, don’t stop at the Epilogue - please ensure that you read all the author’s notes at the end - they are absolutely fascinating and most informative.

A book I anticipated loving from the description and I was not disappointed. A gentle, simple introduction to Esme at the beginning of her life builds into a tale with a raft of characters whose lives unfold with pace and drama, encompassing massively important events of the 20th century. A glorious mix of fact and fiction worked from the creation story of the Oxford English Dictionary, digging deeply into societal attitudes towards woman. Delighting and despairing for the characters in turn, its the first book in a long while that had me reading past bedtime because I needed to know how things would work out. I love words and language so the dictionary device satisfied. And I love a book that makes me think so the questions left about feminism - the ways to tackle injustice and the true extent of progress made means I'm rating this book as a definite hit.

It starts with a child’s view of the world through language, and expands into a lifetime love of words and meaning.. from late nineteenth century into times of war and the women’s movement, the struggle to find a voice and to make a contribution to the dictionary is all consuming.in this story. Many of the characters have a place in history, although it feels such a warm and personal story, that it is told with humour and a compelling truthfulness.
I was totally hooked, and didn’t realise until the end, that so much of it is based on fact. It had never occurred to me that women's’ involvement in such an academic pursuit was to say the least not to be encouraged. , As the author says, the dictionary was compiled by men and for men. By coincidence I read in the paper the other day that a particular derogatory definition of ‘Essex girl’ was taken out of the Oxford English Dictionary after a long campaign only recently. So it goes on.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable read, and I a wonderful mix of the historical and the personal.

'The Dictionary of Lost Words' was a true joy to read, so well-researched and a fascinating interweaving of fictional characters with fact in a timeline of change and loss. I was sorry to reach the end of the book.

Pip Williams presents readers with valuable insights into the rarefied atmosphere of oxford, and the limited roles women were permitted to perform in the male-dominated academic world of the late 19th and early 20th century,

I was impressed with the delicate yet explicit expression of class differences and the 'service' that many women were obliged to adopt, and the developments towards enfranchisement of the times. I hope Pip Williams will continue to explore our world and history with this engrossing mix of story and history.

The best fiction book I’ve read in 2020! I absolutely adored this book from start to finish and got completely lost in the words and story. It made me laugh, cry, feel inspired, feel angry, feel distraught, feel proud and made me loose a lot of sleep as each evening, “just one more page” quickly turned into several more chapters!

‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’ is a historical fiction book about Esme, a girl who becomes involved in creating the first Oxford English Dictionary, and the course of her life. With a backdrop of the women’s suffrage movement, the turn of the century and the First World War themes of gender, class and how our experiences create a lens through which we view, interpret and understand the world are all addressed. What I especially loved about this book was the exploration that the words we use are intrinsically linked to gender and class and that dictionaries and ‘academic’ records of etymology only capture the white, male, middle and upper class use of words and miss out so much and how even the meanings of the same words can change depending on the person using it. What makes one more important than another? So much food for thought in this!

Now I’ve just reached the end I’m off to reread it again because this book is extraordinarily brilliant!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What can I say about The Dictionary of Lost words, apart from the fact that it is an exceptional book that I will remember for a long time and recommend over and over again to book lovers. It is a must read so please buy a copy of the book and get lost in the history of words. I will definitely be buying a paper book copy to read again. Thanks you Pip Williams for such a beautiful sorry, thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review and am very grateful to NG and the publishers for the opportunity to read it. I hadn't got far into this book before realising that I had read something of a very similar nature in non-fiction. That book The Surgeon of Crowthorne: a tale of murder, madness & the love of words is referred to in the author's note at the end of her own narrative.

This book, then. is not a repeat of the Winchester book but a fictionalised account of how that book might have been had it acknowledged the women who played instrumental parts in the development of that first dictionary. The main character appears to be completely from the author's imagination whilst many of the supporting cast played an actual part in the original story. The author has cleverly crated a storyline that places these women both into the dictionary's development and into the events of the historical period. The author examines the way words are interpreted according to the gender of the person doing the definitions. This is interwoven with woman's fight for suffrage and the way that fight is defined by what men or women believed it to encompass.

For the most part this was done extremely well, the interwoven story lines worked beautifully together. It is difficult to define the genre for this book as it encompasses so many different themes including love / family / society.

There were the odd parts that felt stalled, where I wanted things to move on but these were rare occurences. I think the book deserves a 4.5 rating unfortunately Goodreads does not allow that

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK for this review copy.
This is my unbiased review of the author's work and style.
If you want plot lines and spoilers, please see the publisher's blurb and other reviewers' reports.
I have just put this book down and now I feel satiated.
I hadn't previously read any of Pip William's work, but if "The Dictionary of Lost Words" is anything to go by I will be hunting out her other books.
Her style is easy, and I fell into its cadence early in the book. I enjoyed the slow pace and the luxury of knowing I hadn't finished it and there would be more on the morrow. I was surprised how often I found myself caught up in her tale only to find I had let the fire nearly go out and my tumbler remained untouched. It has been a long time since a novel has gripped so much that it invaded my sleep not uncomfortably but nagging at me to get on with my reading.
A brilliant piece of creation made all the better on its being based on fact.
Five Stars all the way *****

A beautiful, astounding and quite profound book. Captivating from beginning to end. The relationships and so well developed, The thread of a woman's place in recorded history runs throughout. Very sad to have finished reading it.

This is my favourite book of the year. I have now read it twice and I'm sure I won't be the only reader who went straight to the O.E.D website and then to read two of the books Pip Williams used in her research. I know I won't be able to do justice to such a magnificent work of literature. In the cast of real-life characters she has introduced Esme and her father. From childhood Esme is fascinated with words. She collects words. She savours them. One day a slip of paper with the word 'bondmaid' floats down to the space Esme inhabits beneath the worktable where the lexicographers work on the definitions of words to be included in the nascent Oxford English Dictionary. This is the first word she hides in a trunk that she calls 'The Dictionary of Lost Words'.
The early history of the O.E.D. gives the impression that the work reflects an elitist and male tone, but Pip Williams has interwoven the Women's Suffrage Movement as well as W.W.I. into the narrative. She has made a fascinating story out of the incredible achievement of bringing to print the twelve volumes of the greatest dictionary of all time and in so doing she has introduced us to Esme, Lizzie and Da, unforgettable characters all. She has given the lead to Esme, who we follow from childhood to maturity, in an unforgettable novel. Don't hesitate to read it, you won't be disappointed.

This was a fantastic story that ticked all my boxes! As historical fiction it follows a little girl Esme through her life from the very late nineteenth century through to her death. We travel through the early suffrage movement for women and the First World War. I love that Esme is surrounded by such a loving and wonderful cast of characters and I include the Scriptorium within that! I was also fascinated by the lexicography. It is important how society selects and prioritises language choices and in Esme’s time, women’s words were disregarded, as suffrage was disregarded as a possibility amongst the early suffragettes for the poor and working classes. How does oral vocabulary, the vernacular become part of recorded language and should it? I heard recently that “conker” is being taken out of the Oxford English Dictionary because it’s out of use. How sad. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this thought provoking book.

An unusual slice of the history of the Oxford Dictionary. A fascinating glimpse into how the Oxford English Dictionary was compiled from a child's eye view. Esme is the clever and imaginative daughter of one of the lexicographers who work in the Scriptorium helping to compile the first edition of the Oxford Dictionary. As a child, in the early 20th century, she spends a lot of time literally under her father's feet at the sorting table. She collects and saves the slips of paper containing words discarded as being unsuitable for inclusion in the dictionary. As a young woman, she also discovers slang and profanities used by people outside her father's circle and adds those to her collection, with a view to future publication. The vivid characterisation, the ups and downs of Esme's life story and the way themes such as women's suffrage and the effect of World War 1 impact on the Scriptorium make this a pleasure to read, though it is rather slow to get going.

This is a fantastic book, all about words and how these can change and influence. Esme spends many hours under her Da’s table in the Scripitorium, where words and definitions are sorted into pigeon holes before being entered into Dr Murray’s dictionary. From this position, Esme learns to love words and their meanings. ‘Words are like stories...they change as they are passed from mouth to mouth; their meanings stretch or truncate to fit what needs to be said.’ She starts to collect ‘lost’ words which float down under the table and these she files away secretly under the bed of Lizzie, a young house maid working at the big house.
As Esme grows up, she starts work at the Scriptorium, running errands around Oxford, for the male assistants. She does, however, still collect words and their meaning, which are added to those hidden ones under the bed. These are the words from women and the illiterate, the ones which are not written down as they have not been printed and published. Lizzie asks her ‘...what’s the point, half the people who say these words will never be able to read them.’ ‘Maybe not,’ Esme answered her, ‘but their words are important.’
Esme becomes involved in the women’s rights movement and learns more about the inequalities between men and women. She states, ‘I realised that the words most often used to define us were words that described our function in relation to others. Even the most benign words – maiden, wife, mother – told the world whether we were virgins or not. What was the male equivalent of maiden? I could not think of it. What was the male equivalent of Mrs, of whore…’
The book ends decades after it began and much has changed in the world. It is a story of love, forgotten people, knowing your place in life, fighting for a better world and giving a voice to the invisible members of society.

I found this book very slow and hard to get into and was feeling a bit disappointed. Then I got to around 32% and things really started to look up. Esme is a fascinating character and she developed well as book progressed. I have always been fascinated by the story of the OED and have read several nonfiction accounts and histories. To read such a well researched and sympathetically written novel based on the real people as well as English and world events has been a real joy. I dropped a star on the rating because of the slow start. If that were edited (publication is months away) this would be worth five solid stars. With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review and e-ARC of this book.

I loved this book! There is a quiet, muted quality to the narrative, much like the quiet of the Scriptorium as Esme sat under the table. It is such a touching thing, her relationship with her Father and he with his employer that this arrangement was begun and allowed to continue for as long as it does. Williams’ descriptive power is one of her strengths, both in setting the scene and the mood. Another reason I loved this novel so much is that I am from Oxford and so could ‘see’ Esme and her bicycle hurling around town. It was especially lovely to get a peep at a 19th century Covered Market!!
The relationships in the novel are Williams’ other major strong point. All are so believable from Mrs Ballard and Lizzie’s to Lizzie and Esme’s which is heartbreaking in it’s simplicity and constancy. Ditte and Beth and their sisterly love for each other for ‘Da’ and for Esme.And then camaraderie of the editors and lexicographers and later a deeper relationship between Esme and Gareth.
The themes of womanhood and the freedom or lack thereof that women faced in turn of the (previous) century Britain are examined through the lens of the Scrippy but also through the huge history making events of the suffrage movement and the First World War, (which reminds me of another incredible relationship, between Esme, Bertie and Angus!) There is a truly balanced scale in the novel, showing that while some women long for freedom from marriage and motherhood, some find the thought of marriage as giving that freedom that they otherwise lack. That while society is totally tipped in the favour of men, that not all men agree with this or are perpetuating it. Even between characters that broadly agree there are differing viewpoints on how this should be or should be accomplished.
There is so much to unpack from this novel. My only criticism and it’s not enough to knock a star off, is that the book gathers considerable speed towards the end and felt rushed. While I can see why she chose the vehicle she did to deliver the ending, I don’t think it was necessary as a plain story, plainly told was what was so captivating about the novel to begin with.

This novel is a slow-burn. If you can get past the first half, then it's worth it. Based on an idea about lexicography, the novel focuses on the creation of the first Oxford English Dictionary and Esme, whose father and his lexicographer colleagues discuss which words ought to be included. Esme's interest in words begins with the word 'bondmaid' and she begins to collect words herself.

Based on real-life characters, you can't fault the research which tackles the women's movement, the class system and the make up of families, all set in the historical climate which leads to and includes WW1.

It's an ambitious, highly competent novel. My thanks to the publishers for the advance copy.

Set in the early twentieth century Esme has been brought up by her father, a lexicographer working on the first Oxford English Dictionary spending most of her early years under the table where they work, collecting words as other children do the time might collect stamps. Words and their meaning are everything to her and as she gets older she becomes more heavily involved in the work of the lexicographers and also in women’s suffrage leading her to start collecting the “women’s words” that are not permitted to feature in this very masculine dictionary.
This is a delightful historical novel covering some of the major political issues of the period with the tragedy of the First World War and the fight for women’s suffrage playing a prominent role but never preaching. Williams gets right inside the head of the young Esme bringing her to life in a way few authors manage. Even though it made me cry I’d strongly recommend it as a lovely, escapist book to cosy up with on a chilly afternoon to take your mind off your worries.

I've been wondering how I can write a review that does justice to this extraordinary book. My love of words drew me to it and time spent with Esme from her early childhood in the Scriptorium was a delight as she learned from her father and other lexicographers about the joy to be found in discovering new words and the complexity of defining them.

Pip Williams writes as convincingly about the rarefied academic world of Oxford as she does about the big wide world of the women's suffrage movement and WW1. I cannot think of any author who writes so movingly in so few words. At times we know something terrible has happened without the event being described, but I could imagine the sorrow it caused all too painfully and had to stop and give myself time to think before continuing reading.

I would like to say something about each and every one of the characters who all come vividly to life, the minor as well as the major ones, but that would take much too long, so I'll stick to just a few. Esme feels like a friend right from the start and we witness her growing and changing through all the joy and sorrow that comes her way; her father watches over her carefully and is painfully aware of his inadequacy at times when he has to try to replace the mother she never knew: both academic Ditte and servant Lizzie impart much wisdom to Esme, both in her childhood and her adult life. Then there is Mr Sweatman, a minor character, but whenever he appeared I found myself wondering if there is any kinder or more considerate man in any work of fiction. And the comedy duo who work briefly in the Scriptorium are hilarious, bringing some lightness and humour to this serious-minded place.

It came as a great surprise to me to learn from the author's note that she used to have trouble with words as she writes so eloquently with compassion, sensitivity and humour and has produced a world that became mine totally. This is a novel that will stay with me.

Is this perhaps my book of the year? No, it's my book of the decade.