The Dictionary of Lost Words, by Pip Williams

Esme has been brought up in the scriptorium – the engine room of the new Oxford English Dictionary, where her kindly father is a senior editor. The huge undertaking is well behind deadline, taking decades to complete. Immersed in a world of words, Esme aspires to her father’s role, even though she is a girl. As she and the dictionary grow she starts to realise that the age, class and gender of the editors determine the words and definitions that are included or omitted. Influenced by the developing suffragist movement and a sense of justice, Esme collects many of the ‘lost’ words and secrets them away. Esme’s story is punctuated by social change at the turn of the 20th century and the First World War. Even though written in the first person, she remains a slightly shadowy personality, almost peripheral to the dictionary and events. This may be because she is one of the few fictional characters, so she exists as a vehicle for ideas and a representation of women overlooked. The book provides a clear and compelling illustration of how a dominant culture excludes and divides, in the process losing of a richness of thoughts and ideas and contributing to the misery and subjugation of ‘others’.