a little book of language
A01=Rebecca Lee
Author_Rebecca Lee
blurb your enthusiasm
burning the books
Category=CBW
Category=CBX
Category=CFF
Category=CFK
Category=DSK
Category=KNTP1
Category=NHTP
david bellos
david crystal
diary of a bookseller shaun bythell
eats shoots and leaves
ella berthoud
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_business-finance-law
eq_dictionaries-language-reference
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_new_release
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
etymological entertainment
ex libris
history of books
how to write a book
just my type simon garfield
literary scandals
literature rivalry
lynne truss
meetings with remarkable manuscripts
publishing a book on amazon
publishing mishaps
richard overton
susan elderkin
the novel cure and an a-z of literary remedies
the rest is history
word etymology
word perfect susie dent
writing books
Product details
- ISBN 9781805221180
- Weight: 409g
- Dimensions: 140 x 220mm
- Publication Date: 23 Apr 2026
- Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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'Fascinating' DAILY MAIL
'Word nerds, assemble! This is the book for us' LUCY MANGAN
'A delightfully impish book of behind-the-scenes literary mishaps' SUNDAY TIMES
It's a long journey from a writer's mind to a finished book - and a lot needs to go right along the way. But isn't it more interesting when things go wrong? With an expert Penguin editor as your guide, dive into the dark-side of the book world: a secret history fizzing with scandals, rivalries, cock-ups and con jobs.
We'll discover how the tiniest of typos can have oversized consequences, unearth horrifying examples of bad taste and worse style, and peek into tales of forgeries and feuds as dramatic as any thriller. We'll unredact the most egregious cases of censorship, expose hoarders and thieves, and ask: after centuries of man-made mischief, can the humble book survive the new machine age?
Rebecca Lee is a senior editorial manager at Penguin Random House. She's spent twenty years wrangling hundreds of books from copyedit to finished copies, and among the millions of words she's sent to print, she's overseen her fair share of mishaps. She is author of the 'masterpiece' (Daily Mail) How Words Get Good.
