The making of the Oxford English Dictionary was a monumental 50 year task requiring thousands of volunteers. One of the keenest volunteers was a W C Minor who astonished everyone by refusing to come to Oxford to receive his congratulations. In the end, James Murray, the OED's editor, went to Crowthorne in Berkshire to meet him.

From the Vikings to Clarence Birdseye, the author introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs and fisherman, whose lives have been interwoven with the prolific fish. He chronicles the cod wars of the 16th and 20th centuries. He shows how the most profitable fish in history is faced with extinction.

A guide to perfect punctuation for those who care about precise writing.

Since the 1950s, some of the world's greatest libraries have dismantled much of their collections of original bound newspapers and books, replacing them with microfilmed copies. In this book the real motives behind the dismantling of our recorded heritage is examined.

Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved, but shaped, inspired and obliterated knowledge. This title takes us on a journey from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British Library.

An account of a revolution in our understanding of life's history, this book tells how three obscure British scientists completely changed our view of evolution by discovering a unique group of 530 million year-old creatures in the Burgess Shale fossil deposit in the Rockies.