Lexical

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Shakespeare's much-quoted sonnets are some of the most beautiful and moving poems in English literature. Dealing with love, beauty and the effects of time, they speak to us as directly now as they spoke to Elizabethan readers. This handsome edition of Shakespeare's sonnets is based on... read more

'Affect' or 'effect'? 'Right', 'write' or 'rite'? 'Soul' or 'sole'? 'Pawn' or 'porn'? English can certainly be a confusing language, whether you're a native speaker or learning it as a second language. This is the essential reference to help people master its subtleties and avoid making mistakes. Divided into three sections, ... read more

'If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I'd nominate her for sainthood.' Frank McCourt The international bestseller, reissued and with a new introduction. A witty, entertaining, impassioned guide to perfect punctuation, for everyone who cares about precise writing. When social histories come to be written of the first decade of ... read more

Previously published by Reed, this is a new, fully-revised 2009 edition. The Raupō Pocket Dictionary of Modern Māori is a portable reference source for speakers of English and Māori at all levels. Fully revised by the author there are more than 20,000 entries divided into Māori-English and English-Māori sections. It includes ... read more

The Raupo Phrasebook of Modern Maori is the most up-to-date, versatile and relevant resource for using Maori language in everyday life. Whether you're a novice or emergent speaker of te reo Maori, or a complete beginner, you'll learn useful phrases for: The home; The marae; The workplace; Meeting and greeting; Eating and drin... read more

At last – a comprehensive, enjoyable and easily understandable self-tuition course for Mäori language! Te Hikuwai is the first book in Te Rere o te Reo, a bilingual course in Te Reo Mäori for learners of all backgrounds. As notable Mäori language advocate Piripi Walker says in his foreword: ‘Te H... read more

Joy Cowley distils her four decades at the top of the children's writing pyramid for the benefit of anyone engaging in writing for young people. In short chapters she covers developing a plot, dialogue, writers' discipline, humour, early reading, novels, picture books, plays, poetry, editing, and presentation.

Many bright minds have come up with expressions we now take for granted as part of the English language, and which we use freely in vernacular speech. But the originators of many of our most useful second-hand remarks go uncredited. The Bible and Shakespeare are rich sources of many common phrases, but in this book Max Cryer ... read more

The bestselling guide to markets in all areas of the media, completely revised and updated, and this year in its 105th edition. With a new foreword by a famous author and several brand new articles by authors and publishing insiders. It also contains a wealth of practical information on a huge range of topics including copyri... read more

Writers Guides: An Aber Series Here is how to become a published romance writer If you want to write romance and be a professional writer then this book is a must for you. Following on from the success of the first edition of this book, which won a major award, this guide explains what is meant by romance and takes you throu... read more

What do picture book publishers really want? This entertaining and practical book has all the answers, including: - What to write about - and how to write it - How to present your work professionally - How to persuade your chosen publisher to accept your book for publication. It covers virtually everything you need to know a... read more

In "Why Lyrics Last", the internationally acclaimed critic Brian Boyd turns an evolutionary lens on the subject of lyric verse. He finds that lyric making, though it presents no advantages for the species in terms of survival and reproduction, is "universal across cultures because it fits constraints of the human mind." An ev... read more

'Cloud nine', 'at the drop of a hat', 'spitting image', 'mollycoddle', 'rigmarole', 'round robin', 'spill the beans', 'kick the bucket', 'balderdash' and 'touch wood'.
There are so many curious words and phrases that we often use and yet haven't you ever wondered why we say them, where they come from and what they mean... read more

This is an enlightening tour of English spelling that untangles 'stationery' from 'stationary' - and explains why the 'i before e except after c' rule is so misleading. Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to ha... read more

This is a collection of the most well-known and best-loved nursery rhymes, along with some that may be less familiar. "Oranges and Lemons: Rhymes from Past Times" plugs into the memories and knowledge of our earliest years, recalling those rhymes and stories we always seem to have known, yet struggle to remember clearly. The ... read more

The Horologicon (or book of hours) gives you the most extraordinary words in the English language, arranged according to the hour of the day when you really need them.
Do you wake up feeling rough? Then you're philogrobolized. Pretending to work? That's fudgelling, which may lead to rizzling if you feel sleepy after lun... read more

How do we really make ourselves understood to other people? This question is at the heart of David Bellos' funny, wise and life-affirming language book, which shows how, from puns to poetry, news bulletins to the Bible, Asterix to Swedish films, translation is at the heart of everything we do - and makes us who we are. It was... read more

Idiomantics is a unique exploration of the world of idiomatic phrases. The very etymology of the word 'idiom' reveals what's so endlessly fascinating about the wide range of colourful phrases we use in everyday speech: their peculiarity. They're peculiar both in the sense of being particular or unique to the culture from whic... read more

What is the actual connection between disgruntled and gruntled? What links church organs to organised crime, California to the Caliphate, or brackets to codpieces? The Etymologicon springs from Mark Forsyth's Inky Fool blog on the strange connections between words.
It's an occasionally ribald, frequently witty and uner... read more

Twenty of America's bestselling authors share tricks, tips and secrets of the successful writing life. Anyone who's ever sat down to write a novel or even a story knows how exhilarating and heart breaking writing can be. So what makes writers stick with it? In Why We Write, twenty well-known authors candidly share what keeps ... read more