Word Play, Gyles Brandreth
Word Play, Gyles Brandreth
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Word Play
A cornucopia of puns, anagrams and other contortions and curiosities of the English language

Author: Gyles Brandreth

Narrator: Gyles Brandreth

Unabridged: 1 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Coronet

Published: 09/24/2015

Synopsis

The aim of this audiobook is entertainment - and surprise - but there will be a fair bit of erudition and incidental education along the way. We discover the oldest words, the newest, the longest, the shortest, the most frequently used, the costliest (yes, words can come with a price attached), the funniest, the most fatal, the most unusual...from the words Shakespeare gave us to the latest in sexting, the BEST and the WORST, the most AMUSING and AMAZING words are here

Full of puns, palindromes, pangrams, acrostics, malaprops, famous (and infamous) last words and featuring extracts recorded live at his Edinburgh Fringe show, in Word Play, Gyles Brandreth leads us through an A-Z and a Z-A of the wonderful world of words.

(P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton

About Gyles Brandreth

Gyles Brandreth is a writer, performer, former MP and Government Whip, now Chancellor of the University of Chester and probably best known these days as a reporter on BBC1's The One Show and having been a regular on Radio 4's Just a Minute. On TV he has featured on Have I Got News For You, QI, Room 101, Countdown, and This is Your Life. As a journalist he writes for the Telegraph and Daily Mail and is a columnist for The Oldie. The founder of the National Scrabble Championships, his books about words and language include four best-sellers, The Joy of Lex, Word Play, Have You Eaten Grandma? and Dancing by the Light of the Moon. His novels include seven Victorian murder mysteries featuring Oscar Wilde as his detective and he has published two volumes of diaries and two acclaimed royal biographies. In 2020 he published The Oxford Book of Theatrical Anecdotes.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jamie on May 20, 2020

A journey through the weird and wonderfully rich English language by Gyles Brandreth. Very interesting and funny. A book that you can dip in and out of or read from cover to cover, whichever you do I’m sure you’ll find something of interest.......more

Goodreads review by Jenna on March 24, 2023

A fantastic and interesting read.......more

Goodreads review by Charley on January 05, 2019

Full disclosure: this book was written for people like me. That being, probably precocious sorts who were likely once equally probably precocious children who liked reading better than socialising with a fair chunk of their peers, and for whom the fascination led to 13 years of schooling and a very......more

Goodreads review by Adam on March 21, 2020

Gyles Brandreth would be an excellent and engaging dinner guest. Even if he'd never let you get past the starter (or appetizer). This book is a smorgasbord of information, at times enlightening - I had never heard of a lipogram, a logogram, a metagram... - but it can be exhausting. The chapter on to......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on February 18, 2019

Full of great games and fascinating facts, and with the stellar wit you expect from Brandreth. I take those points in other reviews about only one go of the alphabet being needed, and it can be a bit technical, but it's also really brilliant and useful in places. Loved the ending too!......more

Quotes

Will amuse children aged five to fifty and beyond. Times Literary Supplement

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