Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - Page number 33 - September/October 2021

33 BOOK REVIEWS Bookstand The latest releases in gift books STORYLAND By Amy Jeffs RRP: £25 Format: Hardback IBSN: 9781529407976 Soaked in rain and old magic, Storyland tells the history of Britain through Medieval eyes. Grounded in meticulous research by art historian Amy Jeffs, related as fiction, it begins before the Great Flood. It’s filled with places we know – and can still visit – today. This landmark publication rooted deep in the ancient British landscape will delight lovers of history, art, myth and stories. www.quercusbooks.co.uk THE DAWN OF LANGUAGE By Sverker Johansson RRP: £25 Format: Hardback An erudite, tightly woven and beautifully written account of one of humanity’s greatest mysteries – the origins of language. A deeply researched exploration of how our ancestors evolved into language users. Who was “the first speaker” and what was their first message? Drawing on evidence from many fields, including archaeology, anthropology, neurology and linguistics, Sverker Johansson weaves these disparate threads together to show how our human ancestors evolved into language users. The Dawn of Language provides a fascinating survey of how grammar came into being and the differences or similarities between languages spoken around the world, before exploring how language eventually emerged in the very remote human past. Our intellectual and physiological changes through the process of evolution both have a bearing on our ability to acquire language. To what extent is the evolution of language dependent on genes, or on environment? How has language evolved further, and how is it changing now, in the process of globalisation? And which aspects of language ensure that robots are not yet intelligent enough to reconstruct how language has evolved? Johansson’s far-reaching, authoritative and research-based approach to language is brought to life through dozens of astonishing examples, both human and animal, in a fascinatingly erudite and entertaining volume for anyone who has ever contemplated not just why we speak the way we do, but why we speak at all. Sverker Johansson’s claim to fame otherwise is to have invented the LSJBot, which has written 8% of all articles on Swedish Wikipedia. He is also a physicist, has conducted research at CERN and participated in EVOLANG, a leading international research conference on language. www.quercusbooks.co.uk LOCKDOWN SECRETS By Eleanor Tattersfield RRP: £12.99 Format: Hardback IBSN: 9781849947282 A compelling collection of anonymous postcards sent during lockdown, revealing hilarious, salacious, relatable and sometimes heartbreaking secret confessions. In the thick of the 2021 coronavirus lockdown, designer and shopowner Eleanor Tattersfield put out a call on Instagram: ‘I’ll send you a postcard, you send me a secret’. Lockdown Secrets is an astonishing record of what happened next. Postcards poured in, some beautifully decorated, some simply handwritten, but each one anonymously sharing a very personal confession. They came from people of all ages and all walks of life, including some celebrities. Prominent themes began to emerge: relationships, sex, food, rebellion, loneliness and, surprisingly, a lot of love for lockdown itself. Eleanor’s project caught media attention from all over the world, including pieces on BBC and Channel 4 News in the UK and 9 News Sydney in Australia. This beautiful book brings together the best of the postcards Eleanor received, and all human life is here: furtive infidelities, bad behaviour in the local bakery, sneaking off for baths during a busy homeschooling schedule, rediscovered marital bliss, and, occasionally, poignant moments of sadness and despair. We’ve all been through the lockdown experience, and every reader will find something to relate to in this fascinating collection, a perfect snapshot of an extraordinary time. www.pavilionbooks.com