This is such a fascinating book, beautifully written and containing so much information that not only did I make notes as I went but I’m going to need to read it again at least once to pick up the things I’m certain I missed the first time around. 

This is cultural history via literature and poetry, meticulously researched and yet never overtly scholarly or obtuse; it sings the song of a world that is at once alien and yet deeply familar. Threads of what is contained in these pages have been showing up in other books I’ve read over the course of the year and my reading of those other books has always been inhanced by having read this one. 

If you have the slightest interest in linguistics, poetry, history or how cultures shift and are subsumed into one another then this is a book you will not want to miss.