WHAT BOOK . .? SUSIE DENT
Etymologist and TV personality
… are you reading now?
I’M re-reading my favourite collection of poetry by Louis MacNeice. My podcast co-host Gyles Brandreth is always encouraging me to pick up poetry before bed rather than a novel, and it really is a lovely thing to do.
Each poem is a story in itself so you get a sense of completeness as well as a whole lot of questions to ponder as you drift off. I’ve always been drawn to MacNeice’s sense of the outsider and his gentle melancholy. But poetry was never my go-to instinctive read, until now.
… would you take to a desert island?
THIS one’s easy: the Oxford English Dictionary, as I have so much more to discover. Each entry is like a carefully crafted story of a word’s journey across the ages.
Who knew, for example, that the ‘avocado’ began as an Aztec word for ‘testicle’ because of its shape? Or that the Jerusalem artichoke has nothing to do with Jerusalem and everything to do with the fact that we couldn’t pronounce a foreign word: in this case the Italian girasole, ‘sunflower’, because the plant turns towards the sun.
And if I’m allowed to smuggle a second book onto the island, it would have to be Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue, a rip-roaring collection of the slang on the streets in the 18th century. Not one for the faint-hearted, the dictionary is essentially the language that was left out of standard works like that of Samuel Johnson.
While Johnson was busy quoting the classics, Francis Grose documented the language of cutpurses and highwaymen, brothel-keepers and taverners. The result is as colourful a collection of fruity language as you’ll find anywhere.
… first gave you the reading bug?
THURSDAY’S Child by Noel Streatfeild. It let my imagination fly. There was something so romantic about the idea of being an orphan and finding your own way in the world. Streatfield takes Margaret Thursday from the orphanage to the canals and on to the theatre, and I longed to follow her. I dreamt of living on a barge or houseboat for years afterwards.
… left you cold?
THERE are quite a few classics that I know I should read but I can’t quite manage it. I reckon I’ve taken James Joyce’s Ulysses on holiday with me at least five times and I can never get past the first 20 pages. Joyce is brilliant with his wordplay but I find it all just too self-conscious.
As for modern novels, I tend to be easily swayed by glowing reviews and rush to the bookshop only to find it all a bit underwhelming.
But as an author myself I know how much I dread a stinging review, so I’m definitely not going to name names.
■ AN EMOTIONAL Dictionary by Susie Dent, (John Murray Press, £14.99).