The Ultimate Introduction to Latin Including the Latin in Everyday English

Gwynne's Latin

The inimitable Mr Gwynne’s ULTIMATE guide to Latin – for its own sake, to improve your English, and to make you better at everything else

Over the last decade, there has been a minor Latin revival, but it is a watered-down version of the language that has been revived. Rigorous Latin lessons are as dead as can be, except in a handful of grammar schools and private schools. So N.M. Gwynne is entering upon virgin territory with this timely guide to learning Latin properly. A former businessman and now a Latin tutor, he had a smash hit last year with Gwynne's Grammar , a rigorous guide to English grammar. Now he's applied the same winning formula to the most influential language of them all

This little book makes a great case for learning Latin, not least because of the countless Latin words and phrases in our daily English

Mr Gwynne is the much loved and passionate educator who is on a crusade. He believes in old-fashioned values, that the modern school system is hopeless – and that keen and close study is the only way to become an enlightened and better person. Now living in County Wexford, Ireland, and in his 70s, N M Gwynne was formerly a successful businessman in London and Australia. On retirement in the 1980s, he took up teaching and soon found that his traditional methods, universal up to the 1960s and refined and perfected century after century up till then, had become all but unique. Subjects he has been teaching – in classrooms, in lecture halls, and nowadays mostly privately – include English, Latin, Greek, French, German, mathematics, history, classical philosophy, natural medicine, the elements of music, and "How to start up and run your own business”. He has taught all over the world and thanks to the internet and Skype, he has sometimes found himself, at different times in a single day, teaching as far apart as India, Europe and western USA.

‘Latin is "it", the most wonderful "thing". It is mind-enhancing, character-improving, enthralling, exciting, deeply satisfying, and valuable. My solid determination is to spare no pains to do it the justice that its importance demands.’ 
 
Mr Gwynne, author of the Sunday Times bestselling phenomenon Gwynne’s Grammar, is just as emphatic about the importance of Latin as he is about the importance of grammar. From the novice to the more well-versed, Gwynne’s Latin is essential for anyone interested in learning Latin; Mr Gwynne promises to teach you more Latin in half an hour than you would learn from years of being taught Latin at school. He also includes a fascinating section on everyday Latin usage, which discusses all the Latin words and idioms we still use today, such as ‘quid pro quo’ and ‘sui generis’. 
 
Though we need no further convincing ­– as we know, Mr Gwynne is never wrong – here are just some of the many reasons why Latin is utterly wonderful: 
 
- Latin is an academic subject easy enough for the least intelligent of us to grasp all the basic elements of, and yet difficult enough to be demanding for its greatest scholars. 
- For well over a thousand years it was the means of communication that united the whole of Europe culturally and in every other significant way. 
- It is the direct ancestor of, between them, the five most widely-spoken European languages, and both of the official South American languages. 
- It is the ancestor and source of more than half of the English language, partly directly and partly through French, which for some centuries was England’s official language. 
 
Following in the same beautifully designed footsteps of Gwynne’s Grammar, Gwynne’s Latin will teach you all the fundamentals of Latin quickly, thoroughly and better than all the competition.

The Ultimate Introduction to Grammar and the Writing of Good English. Incorporating also Strunk’s Guide to Style.

Gwynne's Grammar

A timely and beautifully designed guide to the English grammar we all know we ought to know

Now living in County Wexford, Ireland, and in his 70s, N M Gwynne was formerly a successful businessman in London and Australia. On retirement in the 1980s, he gradually took up teaching, at first privately. He soon found that he had a clear vocation for teaching, and that his traditional methods, universal up to the 1960s and refined and perfected century after century up till then, had suddenly become all but unique because of the revolution in teaching that had taken place worldwide at around that time. Subjects he has been teaching – in classrooms, in lecture halls, and nowadays mostly privately – include English, Latin, Greek, French, German, mathematics, history, classical philosophy, natural medicine, the elements of music, and "How to start up and run your own business”. Now with an international word-of-mouth reputation, Mr Gwynne has been flown around the world in order to teach his pupils. And thanks to the internet and Skype, he has sometimes found himself, at different times in a single day, teaching children and adults as far apart as in India, in Europe and in western USA.

'Grammar is the science of using words rightly, leading to thinking rightly, leading to deciding rightly, without which – as both common sense and experience show – happiness is impossible. Therefore: happiness depends at least partly on good grammar.' 
 
So writes Mr Gwynne in his small, but perfectly formed new book. Mr Gwynne believes passionately that we must regain our knowledge of the lost science of grammar before it is too late. 
 
Formerly a successful businessman, Mr Gwynne has for many years been teaching and tutoring just about every sort of subject to just about every sort of pupil in just about every sort of circumstance. His teaching methods are very much the traditional, common-sense ones, refined over the centuries, that were almost everywhere until they were abolished in the 1960s. 
 
Being disappointed in the standards of grammar he encountered in his pupils, Mr Gwynne, over time, wrote this wonderful, succinct and yet comprehensive little book – because nothing quite as suitable already existed. 
 
This edition also includes Strunk’s classic guide to style, explaining how to write well and the main pitfalls to avoid. 
 
Beautifully designed, easy to understand and a joy to read, Gwynne's Grammar may be the best little book you will ever have in your life.

Nevile Gwynne

The Indispensable History of England and Her Monarchs

Do you know your Kings and Queens of England by heart? Can you tell your Ethelred from your Ethelbert? Your Marcia from your Matilda? 
 
Well, passionate educator Mr Gwynne is back – and this time he is taking on the entirety of British history – so you will never be in the dark again. Within the pages of this little gem – bursting with our small island’s rich past – he teaches us the history of England through her remarkable monarchs. 
 
It is Mr Gwynne’s belief that a certain amount of what you might read in other history books may well be wrong. It is his aim to show you why. 
 
Concise, thorough and utterly fascinating, this is the perfect book to be enjoyed by young and old, to be read at a time when, for many, harking back to our rich past seems much more preferable than living in the dreary present. 
 
And when it comes to the benefits of education, Mr Gwynne is never wrong!

Nevile Gwynne

Books by Nevile Gwynne

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