Overlook Celebrates WALKING ENGLISH with Author David Crystal

Friends of The Overlook Press celebrated the paperback release of David Crystal's Walking English last night, at a reception hosted by publisher Peter Mayer. Walking English is a thoroughly enjoyable read - a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers from all over the world. Woven from personal reflections, historical allusions, and observations of travelers, this fascinating journey through the language we use every day will have readers thinking twice about each word they speak.

David Crystal, author of WALKING ENGLISH, on NPR's Talk of the Nation

Linguist and author David Crystal was recently interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation, discussing the paperback release of Walking English: A Journey in Search of Language: "Whether near his home in Wales or abroad, linguist David Crystal always travels with an insatiable curiosity about the English language. For his book, Walking English, he hit the road in search of new linguistic experiences. Crystal is fascinated by distinctive accents and towns with unusual names. He takes particular interest in intriguing turns of phrase old and new, whether they're rooted deep in Anglo-Saxon origins or fresh off a TV ad."

Visit NPR.org to read an excerpt from Walking English and listen to the interview.

David Crystal's THE STORIES OF ENGLISH in The Wall Street Journal

David Crystal's The Stories of English is nominated by Michael Quinlon in The Wall Street Journal as one of the Five Best Books on the English language: "This richly textured, nontechnical account of the evolution of English is fascinating because it interweaves multiple narratives. In parallel with the standard language, David Crystal discusses varieties usually considered nonstandard -- dialect, slang and the speech of ethnic minorities -- which previously hadn't received the same level of attention. Traditionalist speakers and grammarians deplore such varieties as inferior or corrupt, but they are increasingly becoming accepted as legitimate, not least because only one in three speakers of English now has it as a mother tongue. With a cornucopia of examples that range from "The Canterbury Tales" to "The Lord of the Rings," and from the correspondence of medieval kings to Internet chatroom gossip, Crystal's exposition is a delight."

David Crystal's BY HOOK OR BY CROOK Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

David Crystal's new book By Hook or By Crook: A Journey in Search of English is reviewed in this week's Publishers Weekly: "Linguist Crystal (How Language Works) elucidates the serendipitous nature of language study” as he meanders from Wales to San Francisco by way of England and Poland, taking every opportunity for linguistic exploration. A somewhat rambling travelogue is paired with Crystal’s idiosyncratic thought processes, and the book is full of descriptive anecdotes culminating in linguistic intrigue. Often something simple such as an impromptu “Good morning” from a Welsh shepherd is the trigger, in this case prompting the history of the shepherd’s “crook” of the book’s title. Crystal searches for—and finds—surprising topics in the lush cultures surrounding him, including the etymology of the name of a Welsh town which contains 58 letters (it’s Llanfairpwll for short), causing him to speculate on why words containing “consonants like m, n, l, and r” are considered “the most beautiful,” to discuss the “linguistic processes of a wordplayer” and to conclude with a version of Hamlet in which every word begins with “h.” In a conversational style that includes plenty of quirky facts, Crystal captures the “exploratory, seductive, teasing, quirky, tantalizing nature of language study,” and in doing so illuminates the fascinating world of words in which we live."

Languages Matter: U.N. Proclaims 2008 The International Year of Languages

The United Nations has proclaimed 2008 The International Year of Languages, "recognizing that genuine multilingualism promotes unity in diversity and international understanding." One of the world's foremost authorities on languages is David Crystal, author of Overlook's The Stories of English, How Language Works, and the forthcoming By Hook or By Crook: A Journey in Search of English. The new work is a departure for Crystal: an entertaining linguistic travelogue, and an attempt to capture the seductive, quirky, teasing, tantalizing nature of language itself. By Hook or By Crook will be published in May 2008.