Weed Memorial & Hollander Branch Book Discussion via Zoom: The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

Esme spends much of her time in an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team are collecting words for the first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper flutters beneath the table. And so she begins to collect the words that have been discarded.

As she grows up, Esme realizes that words relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words.

Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story.