Editions

Mother Tongue

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780141040080

  • Length: 288  Pages

  • Dimensions: 199mm x 19mm x 133mm

  • Weight: 204g

  • RRP: £9.99

Mother Tongue

  • The Story of the English Language

'More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems, try to...'

Only Bill Bryson could make a book about the English language so entertaining. With his boundless enthusiasm and restless eye for the absurd, this is his astonishing tour of English. From its mongrel origins to its status as the world's most-spoken tongue; its apparent simplicity to its deceptive complexity; 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.

  • Imprint: Penguin

  • ISBN: 9780141040080

  • Length: 288  Pages

  • Dimensions: 199mm x 19mm x 133mm

  • Weight: 204g

  • RRP: £9.99

Reviews

  • Not only fascinating but extremely funny

    Angus Deayton

  • The sort of linguistics I like, anecdotal, full of revelations, and with not one dull paragraph

    Ruth Rendell, Sunday Times

  • A gold mine of language-anecdote, information, curiosity. A suprise on every page... enthralling

    Observer

  • Delightful, amusing and provoking... A joyful celebration of our wonderful language, which is packed with curiosities and enlightenment on every page

    Sunday Express

  • A delightful survey - though with its good humour, wealth of anecdote, and boyish enthusiasm, "romp" would be a better word.

    David Crystal

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

About the Author

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up there, but has spent most of his adult life in Britain. He has worked for a number of newspapers, including The Times and the Independent. His books on the English language include Mother Tongue and Troublesome Words, both published by Penguin. Bill Bryson is the author of several bestsellers including The Lost Continent, Neither Here Nor There, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Big Country, Down Under, A Short History of Nearly Everything, One Summer: America 1927 and his memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His most recent bestseller is The Road to Little Dribbling.

Bill Bryson

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/company/blogs/student-design-award/Neil-Gower-Bill-Bryson-promo.jpg

Blogs

Graphic artist Neil Gower on his book covers for Bill Bryson

Graphic artist Neil Gower has designed the entire backlist of author Bill Bryson's books. How did he find a visual style to cover so many different titles?
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2019/november/Bill-Bryson---970x415.jpg

Events

The Body: Bill Bryson, 15th February 2020
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2019/september/Bill Bryson The Body and hand.jpg

Features

Bill Bryson: we shouldn't take calorie counting too seriously

The author of The Body explores the strange history of how a 19th century 'calorimeter' chamber came to inform nutritional science (but hasn't always worked).

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience. For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.