‘Why Q Needs U’ cover reveal!

Friends, linguists, beloved subscribers, lend me your eyes! My new book Why Q Needs U has a cover. Now, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge a cover, and this one is looking good. This reveal also comes with a limited-time discount…

A lot of thought and emails have gone into this visual feast. Those hieroglyphs were by no means chosen at random, and the contents of the book will tell you why not.

The biggest development in the book’s recent history (that is, the past two weeks) is the glowing endorsement from Sir Stephen Fry included on the cover. Made possible by two treasured intermediaries, I got in contact with that beknighted Brit in hopes of bringing the book to his attention. What I soon received was a paragraph of such erudite positivity that I had a bit of breakdown.

“A wonderful achievement! A breathtaking adventure through the alphabet – each letter a hero with a remarkable story to tell. An absolutely delightful read, filled with jewels of lightly worn scholarship and dazzling insight. I just couldn’t recommend it more highly.“

Being an Englishman reared on a diet of QI and Blackadder, you can imagine how much this endorsement means to me. I am most pleased with the phrase “lightly worn scholarship”. I’ve written this book with every reader of English in mind, and he recognised that.

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At time of writing (July 28th), I can in fact offer a discount for people who would like to join Sir Stephen and read the book themselves. If you are in the UK or in easy shipping distance thereof, the bookseller Waterstones now has a 25% discount on all upcoming books. Since Why Q Needs U is a 4000-year story, this is like getting 1000 years for free.

You can find my baby here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/why-q-needs-u/danny-bate/9781785307430. The code SUMMER25 is valid for all the books in this big group, so go support the many authors and authors-to-be included! I may have used the code for a bit of shopping myself.

Note that the offer only runs until July 31st!

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So, that’s where Why Q Needs U is at. If you’ve ever wanted to hold my posts in your hands (with a very nice cover attached), then this is your chance to get that very thing at a discount.

Regular service on this site (probably a post about Latin morphology) will resume as soon as my poor brain is up to it.

With linguistic love,
Danny