“It takes true brilliance to lift the arid tellings of lexicographic fussing into the readable realm of the thriller and the bodice-ripper. With his riveting account of the furious rows over the publication in the Sixties of Webster’s 3rd edition, David Skinner has done precisely this, taking a fine story and honing it to popular perfection.”
—Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman
David Skinner 