The Mother Tongue

Only Bill Bryson could make a book about the English language so entertaining. With his boundless enthusiasm and restless eye for the absurd, he takes readers on an astonishing tour of English.

From its mongrel origins to its status as the world's most-spoken tongue; from its apparent simplicity to its deceptive complexity; from its vibrant swearing to its uncertain spelling and pronunciation, Bryson covers all this as well as the many curious eccentricities that make it as maddening to learn as it is flexible to use.

Bill Bryson's classic Mother Tongue is a highly readable and hilarious tale of how English came to be the world's language.