Book Club
EVENT INFORMATION
Join us in the grandiose surroundings of the Etruscan Room for another edition of our Book Club, as we discuss ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’ by Pip Williams.
About the book: In 1901, the word ‘Bondmaid’ was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutter to the floor unclaimed. Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.
Complimentary for members and up to three guests
Monday 4 July, at 7.30pm
In the Etruscan Room, first floor, House 20