Historical fiction

The Dictionary of Lost Words

by Pip Williams

Esme grows up beneath the sorting table where her father and other lexicographers are compiling the first Oxford English Dictionary. She begins collecting discarded words and gradually recognizes that language associated with women, working people, and ordinary speech is too easily excluded from the official record. Her private archive expands as the suffrage movement and the First World War reshape both her world and her understanding of whose voices deserve preservation. Thoughtful and immersive, this historical novel is ideal for readers drawn to words, women's history, quiet rebellion, and the power of naming what others overlook.