Pip Williams introduces The Dictionary of Lost Words

The Dictionary of Lost Words, introduced by author Pip Williams.

Based on real events, this tale of the OED's compilation explores how words take on different meanings for men and women. Highly recommended by our booksellers, this is a moving tale of women and words, and how history is skewed by those who hold power.

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In 1901, the word 'bondmaid' was discovered missing from the Oxford English Dictionary. This is the story of the girl who stole it.

Motherless and irrepressibly curious, Esme spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of lexicographers are gathering words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary.

Esme's place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day, she sees a slip containing the word 'bondmaid' flutter to the floor unclaimed.

Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women's experiences often go unrecorded. She begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.