Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship : An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics Guardian First Book Award Nominee for Longlist (2012) Winner of the Miles Franklin

Winner of the Miles Franklin AwardWinner of the Encore AwardWinner of the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered AwardShortlisted for the Costa Novel PrizeShortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial PrizeLonglisted for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction

his overall conception of political science

Frank - no ordinary sixteen-year-old - lives with his father outside a remote Scottish village

well-behaved member of your household

The great trial lawyers

Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship : An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics Guardian First Book Award Nominee for Longlist (2012) Winner of the Miles FranklinWhy does language change? Why can we speak to and understand our parents but have trouble reading Shakespeare? Why is Chaucer's English of the fourteenth century so different from Modern English of the late twentieth century that the two are essentially different languages? Why are Americans and English 'one people divided by a common language'? And how can the language of Chaucer and Modern English or Modern British and American English still be