Review by Susan Latreille

The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020) by Pip Williams

Words are the palette of the writer as an artist, whatever the genre, whether it is fact or fiction.

The dictionary, just as the brush is a tool to the painter or the chisel to the sculpturer, is a tool to the writer, a tool that can be used to enhance their art.

But dictionaries themselves are filled with words, so does that make the dictionary a work of art? We tend to think of the dictionary as rather utilitarian, but what if we were to witness the birth of a dictionary, not just any dictionary but the famed OED, the Oxford English Dictionary?

Welcome to The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020) by Pip Williams, a book that I absolutely loved. It is great historical fiction and a fascinating history of that famous birth, the birth of The Oxford English Dictionary. If you are a lover of words, like to read dictionaries, have experienced the awesomeness of searching through the OED, and enjoy historical fiction with good characterizations of fictional as well as real historical figures, this novel is for you.

The story centres around Esme who is raised by her widowed father, one of the lexicographers working on the creation of The Oxford English Dictionary. She spends her childhood under the sorting table at the Scriptorium, the birthplace of the OED, where she begins collecting discarded slips of paper, words that are being rejected for inclusion in the dictionary. Some of the misogynistic ‘ideals’ behind the inclusion or exclusion of words in the first edition of the OED was, to me, a shocking surprise.

As a young woman, Esme begins to work at the Scriptorium, and her quest for saving discarded words grows. She begins to seek out other words that would never be included in the dictionary because there was no historical printed version of the word, or it was considered slang, or words used only by the very lower class, or possibly worst of all, considered to be only women’s words.

Edith, who had been Esme’s mother’s friend, tries her best, from a distance, to help her father raise the young child. She is devoted to Esme and soon becomes her confidante as she supports the young girl growing into womanhood during the turbulent times of women’s suffrage, war, and personal trials and tribulations. As well, Edith is an avid supporter of Esme’s quest to give life to the ‘lost words’.

This is a well-written, informative, and interesting novel. Lovers of words will be quite mesmerized by the process of building a dictionary. For those not that keen on the historical aspect of the Oxford English Dictionary, don’t discount this novel. The fictional part of the story, the portrayal of the life of Esme, her growth from childhood to womanhood, is artistically recounted and very emotional.

I can’t help but wonder what those strict opinionated men of the Scriptorium would think of some of modern-day dictionaries devoted totally to slang and colloquialisms. Perhaps we have the likes of fictional Esme to thank for enriching our access to the vast repertoire of the ever-changing English language. 

The Bookbinder (2023), Williams’s follow-up novel to The Dictionary of Lost Words is a stand-alone story, but it has a lovely yet heartbreaking connection to the first novel as Esme’s collection of lost words are given birth in a tome of their own.

Pip Williams has authored more than thirty peer-reviewed academic papers in the fields of psychology, sociology, public health, and more, as well as co-authoring Time Bomb: Work, Rest and Play in Australia Today, and her non-fiction One Italian Summer which recounts her and her family’s search for the good life in Italy. She has also published travel articles and book reviews. The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first foray into fiction.

The SDG library system has one print copy of The Dictionary of Lost Words and several copies each of the eBook and Audiobook. It also has print, eBook, and Audiobook versions of The Bookbinder. Both titles are available for purchase at Indigo, Amazon, and betterworldbooks.com.