1
of
1
Crystal’s Curiosity Cabinet
An English Language Miscellany
Brief Description
What do a comic alphabet, a glorious lipogram and a wellerism have in common? Or, an audit of accountants, an illusion of magicians, and an intrusion of spammers? And do you know how Shakespeare pronounced his name? Quirky, original, amusing and enlightening, this charming English Language...
Read More
Format: Hardback
$3999
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
Crystal’s Curiosity Cabinet
$3999
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
The Book Briefing 21/10/2026
Welcome back to another edition of 'The Book Briefing', your weekly round-up of all the...
Story to Screen - 21/10/26
It's been another huge week in the world of book-to-screen adaptations! From record-breaking trailers and...
Things We Learned from an Evening with Alice Oseman
Liam and Lizzy went along to an evening with Alice Oseman of Heartstopper! Here are...
The Book Hero Team's Wins and Misses in Film and TV Adaptations
We all love arguing in a mostly good-natured way about which adaptations of our favourite...
Vanya Insull (aka VJ Cooks) visits Book Hero
We were lucky to have a visit from popular foodie, home cook and baker Vanya...
See moreA charming, unique, entertaining and informative English Language Miscellany.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
What do a comic alphabet, a glorious lipogram and a wellerism have in common?
Or, an audit of accountants, an illusion of magicians, and an intrusion of spammers?
And do you know how Shakespeare pronounced his name?
Quirky, original, amusing and enlightening, this charming English Language Miscellany from David Crystal, one of the greatest British linguists of our time, offers fascinating observations on random, weird and witty words and expressions, collected over a number of years.
Following the tradition of the Victorian miscellany and cabinets of curiosities, the 150+ random entries reveal the global, national, contemporary and historical impact of language, and will appeal to word lovers and fun-fact-fiends alike.
Showcasing linguistic creativity in all its glory, and featuring a wide range of topics that reflect current language issues, such as accents, dialects, etymology, proverbs, place names, punctuation, everyday usage, and language change, this book provides a playful, entertaining and informative read on the bizarre nature of language.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399823890
Publisher: John Murray Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 16 October 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: John Murray Publishers Ltd
Audience: General / adult, EFL / TEFL / TESOL
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 26.0mm
Width: 132.0mm
Height: 200.0mm
Weight: 300g
Pages: 240
About the Author
David Crystal, OBE, is known throughout the world as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster on language and linguistics. He has written or edited over 100 books and published numerous articles for scholarly, professional, and general readerships on the history and development of English, including The Stories of English, How Language Works, and Evolving English. He has also published many works on Shakespeare, most recently co-authoring Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for Life (Chambers, 2023). An honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, David works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales. His autobiographical memoir, Just a Phrase I'm Going Through, appeared in 2009, and he lives online at www.davidcrystal.com.
Also by David Crystal
View all-
Everyday Shakespeare
An absolutely joyous, gasp-out-loud achievement. - Stephen Fry Shakespeare's flame is infectious. An olympic torch, for us all, to be enlightened, words which share the shadow and light of humanity's hues. - LionHeart, artist, poet and BBC Radio London presenter Silver Medal Winner at the 2024 Nautilus Book Awards. Shakespeare had an ear and hand that was able to capture...Paperback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Little Book of Language
A lively journey through the story of language, from an infant's first word to the languages of the internet. Language never leaves you alone. It's there in your head, helping you think. It's there to help you make relationships – and to break them. It's there to remind you who you are and where you come from. From the first...Paperback$2599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Bookish Words & their Surprising Stories
The world of books has played a striking role in the history of English vocabulary. Book itself is one of the oldest words in the language, originating from boc in Old English, and appears in many commonly used expressions today such as by the book, bring to book, and bookworm, to name a few. With the arrival of printing, typesetting,...Hardback$3500Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
William Tyndale and the English Language
This book is a pioneering exploration of Tyndale's enormous impact on the development of the English language.'Dearly beloved', 'say the word', 'the powers that be', 'for ever and ever' these familiar phrases and many more were set down in print for the first time by William Tyndale. For his groundbreaking English translation of the Bible, he deliberately chose to write...Hardback$5799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Making a Point
This engaging history of punctuation (Wall Street Journal) is not only the first history of its kind, but a complete guide on how to use English punctuation. Behind every punctuation mark lies a thousand stories. The punctuation of English, marked with occasional rationality, is founded on arbitrariness and littered with oddities. For a system of a few dozen marks, it...Paperback$3299Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
That's the Ticket for Soup!
The vocabulary of past times, no longer used in English, is always fascinating, especially when we see how it was pilloried by the satirists of the day. Here we have Victorian high and low society, with its fashionable and unfashionable slang, its class awareness, and the jargon of steam engines, motor cars, and other products of the Industrial Revolution. Then...Hardback$4999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How Language Works
How Language Works by David Crystal is a fascinating tour through the world of language from one of today's most renowned experts. This book ranges over everything from how children learn to read to what makes words rude or polite, from eyebrow flashes to whistling languages. Unlocking the secrets of communication in an accessible, entertaining way, this exhilarating book sheds...Paperback$1699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
A Date with Language
A collection of 366 facts about language to enliven each day of the year. In this ingenious and diverse collection of 366 stories, events and facts about language, David Crystal presents a selection of insights from literary and linguistic writers, poets and global institutions, together with the weird and wonderful creations of language enthusiasts to enliven each day of the...Hardback$5799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Word for All Seasons
Silly season, spring chicken, Shrovetide, dog days, Halloween, wassail, Snowtober, Hogmanay, and over 100 other words and phrases are brought together here to show how seasonal vocabulary has become one of the most productive areas of the English lexicon. Words associated with spring, summer, autumn or fall, and winter, along with 'season' itself, have long been used creatively in such...Hardback$4499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Everyday Shakespeare
An absolutely joyous, gasp-out-loud achievement. - Stephen Fry A cathedral of consciousness - Shakespeare's uncanny insight into human nature finds us, unearthed here. - LionHeart, artist, poet, and BBC Radio London presenter Shakespeare had an ear and hand that was able to capture our everyday thoughts and emotions, pin them to a page, and express them so well that still...Hardback$5000Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Gift of the Gab
A many-faceted exploration of spoken eloquence: how it works, how it has evolved, and how to tap its remarkable power. We all know eloquence when we hear it. But what exactly is it? And how might we gain more of it for ourselves? This entertaining and, yes, eloquent book illuminates the power of language from a linguistic point of view...Paperback$2899Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
We Are Not Amused
Pronunciation governs our regional and social identity more powerfully than any other aspect of spoken language. No wonder, then, that it has attracted most attention from satirists. In this intriguing book, David Crystal shows how our feelings about pronunciation today have their origins in the way our Victorian predecessors thought about the subject, as revealed in the pages of the...Hardback$4499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from Philosophy & Psychology
View all-
Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a transformative guide that demonstrates how tiny, incremental changes in behaviour can fundamentally reshape your life. Rather than urging sweeping transformations, Clear advocates for the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions. Whether it’s performing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes earlier, or making a brief, focused phone call, these minuscule adjustments,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseHow Lucky Am I
The first full book featuring social media sensation Mr. Skelly, with over 5 million global followers, a skeleton who teaches us that life is a gift to be treasured, reminding us how lucky we all are to live in this present moment. For readers of The Book of Gifts and The Little Frog’s Guide to Self Care. In this poignant,...Hardback$4299Elsewhere:$5500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Creative Act
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed...Hardback$4400Elsewhere:$5500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Winner's Formula
The Neuroscience of Peak Performance, Success, and Happiness Why do some people win all the time? Why do others languish? From Olympians to Formula 1 drivers, addicts to billionaires, cognitive neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman has spent decades working to help people understand how to succeed. In The Winner's Formula, Kerry explains what goes on in your brain when you are...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Strangers
The must-read memoir of the end of a marriage and the start of a personal revolution, based on the iconic Modern Love essay in the New York Times and perfect for fans of Glennon Doyle. "A beautifully written eulogy for the loss of a relationship" — Joyce Carol Oates How do we go on when a loved one betrays us?...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
23% off1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...Paperback$1000Usually:$1299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
21% offAroha
Aroha by Dr Hinemoa Elder is an enlightening exploration of timeless Maori wisdom, intricately woven into a contemporary context. This top-selling non-fiction title from New Zealand in 2021 introduces readers to 52 traditional Maori proverbs, known as whakataukī, each offering a profound lesson for every week of the year. Dr Elder, a respected Maori psychiatrist, delves into these powerful sayings...Hardback$1900Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Lessons on Living
Bestselling author Nigel Latta's simple psychological toolkit for life's ups and downs. Over thirty years working as a clinical psychologist, Nigel Latta assembled a personal toolkit based on three simple principles. These principles helped him to be more resilient, joyful, and attuned to what matters most. The same principles have helped him through some difficult times as well, such as...Paperback$2900Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Eat Your Ice Cream
The New York Times bestseller that presents a bold new vision for living well and ageing with purpose from a world-renowned health expert THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From a leading doctor and world-renowned health expert, the simple, uplifting and practical guide to cutting through the wellness noise, living well and ageing with purpose. ‘Essential reading for anyone who...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Better Never Stops
The Art and Science of Continuous Improvement From delinquent to doctor, Paul Wood knows first-hand how far we can take our lives if we address what holds us back. At the age of 18, Wood was sent to New Zealand's toughest prison. Almost 11 years later, in 2006, he walked out a free man, escaping his past and becoming a...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Courage to be Disliked
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga presents an enlightening and thought-provoking dialogue between a philosopher and a young man disillusioned with life. In a series of conversations, the philosopher introduces the principles of Alfred Adler's psychology, advocating for personal empowerment and mental freedom. Through this engaging dialogue, the young man learns to confront the societal...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The DOSE Effect
The DOSE Effect offers small habits to boost your brain chemistry. "This book will help you find more motivation, create deeper connections, energise your body, and destress your mind," says Jay Shetty, author of Think Like a Monk. Life can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Today’s fast-paced world leaves many of us struggling with extreme emotional highs...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
