The Language Wars

'[Hitchings] writes beautiful prose, witty and succinct. His book is full of complex ideas expressed with crystal clarity ... The range of his knowledge and curiosity is remarkable ... Every paragraph contains a fascinating detail about the English language ... I recommend that you rush out to immediately buy it, or to buy it immediately, whichever you prefer.' * Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday, Five Star Review *
'This richly detailed and often delightfully combative book is a historical guide to the sometimes splenetic battles that have been fought over [English] down the centuries . . . a pleasure to read.' * Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times *
'Crisply written, amusing, informative and thought-provoking. Anyone interested in the English language and its history should read it.' * Charles Moore, Sunday Telegraph *
'Hitchings' exemplary researches and disinterested, perceptive and often witty explications, make it clear that one cannot glibly dismiss these struggles over what makes English "proper" ... Hitchings has created a fascinating, wholly readable and gratifyingly informative book.' * Financial Times *
The Language Wars asks us to think beyond tradition, habit and deference, and to consider what we want from our words. It is a very intelligent and polite call to arms, but a call to arms nonetheless * Observer *
'The Language Wars takes the reader on a Cook's tour of complaints about English past and present ...' * Deborah Cameron, Guardian *
'It is a breath of fresh air (if that is the right cliché) to wander the byways of language without always being nudged to laugh at prescriptivists' foolish nostrums.' * Daily Telegraph *
'A superb survey' * Reader's Digest *
'An extraordinary amount of reading has clearly gone in to the Language Wars' * Guardian *
'Erudite but eminently readable' * Independent on Sunday *
'...if you like the English language as it develops and changes - this is a book you'll love. Hitchings unpicks arguments with terrific flair....He makes us think about language - what it is, what it does, where's been. There's a great bit on the modern use of "like". It's like, wow' * Evening Stardard *
'Playful and learned' * Independent *
'Richly detailed, delightfully combative...such a pleasure to read' * Sunday Times *