The English language is a minefield, full of words that look and sound alike but mean different things in different places. Here's an entertaining and essential guide to the most commonly confused words in English today, with real examples of good and bad usage.

Born as a Germanic tongue with the arrival in Britain of the Anglo-Saxons in the early medieval period, heavily influenced by Norman French from the 11th century, and finally emerging as modern English from the late Middle Ages, the English language has grown to become the linguistic equivalent of a superpower, and is now sometimes described as the world's lingua franca.
Worldwide some 380 million people speak English as a first language and some 600 million as a second language. A staggering one billion people are believed to be learning it. English is the premier international language...

Once upon a time, the worst words you could utter were short, simple and tended to be four letters in length. Now things are more complicated. To be insulted as a 'snowflake' or an 'expert' is arguably worse than being called a **** or a **** or even a ****. So what are today's 'bad words' and how are they different from yesterday's taboo expressions? This entertaining guide to the shifting sands of bad language is indispensable in an increasingly divided world in which abuse becomes ever more widespread and vituperative. Philip Gooden shows how and why taboo words and contentious...

History meets mystery with a new twist in this raucous, colourful novel set in the bustling theatrical world of Shakespeare and Marlowe during the reign of the formidable Elizabeth I.

History meets mystery with a new twist in this raucous, colourful novel set in the bustling theatrical world of Shakespeare and Marlowe during the reign of the formidable Elizabeth I.