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The Surgeon of Crowthorne

The Murder, Mystery and Madness of the Oxford English Dictionary

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The Surgeon of Crowthorne

By: Simon Winchester
Narrated by: Simon Winchester
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The compiling of the Oxford English Dictionary was a monumental task. It took 50 years, even with the help of numerous contributors. Among the most prolific was William Chester Minor, who sent editor James Murray thousands of extracts.

On many occasions, Murray invited this mysterious correspondent to Oxford, but the invitation was always declined. Finally stirred by curiosity, Murray himself went to visit Minor. What he found was shocking: Minor lived in Broadmoor asylum. He was a millionaire, an expert on the English language, and a qualified surgeon, but he was imprisoned as a lunatic for murder.

©1998 Simon Winchester (P)2005 W. F. Howes Ltd Historical True Crime Words, Language & Grammar
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Really well researched, written and read by the author. Highly recommend. Wish he read more books, he has one of the most professional voices I have heard on audio books

Brilliant

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interesting history. fine narration, I'm putting a review in so it helps with algorithm but you have to write 15 words....

Good

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The author's grasp of english accents does not alas match that of his subjects...let alone an attempt at Spanish that is pure Les Dawson in a hair net & curlers, half mouthing "Me Waterworks" - screwed up face and all. Once again a moving, thoughtful and excellent story suffers his non mastery of regional or any accents, he slips in and out of some vague west country U.S. east coast Scottish lilt..otherwise it's excellent....for a buffoon.

oooh arrr! It's Buffoon not Baffoon you BUFFOON!

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I fell upon this title almost by accident when looking for something else, serendipity indeed. This is a very different book to those I normally choose and had opened up a whole new genre I am keen to explore in the future. Well narrated as well as written.

More interesting than I expected.

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I loved the biographies of Murray and Minor,both fascinating men, as well as the history of the early treatment of schizophrenia, but above all the focus on classifying the English language. The final interview between the author and the then editor of the dictionary is a tour de force!

Compelling History of OED Compilers

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