This classic work is the quintessential guide to writing good clear English. Now updated in a new edition, but with all its original charm, it provides advice on everything from using the semicolon correctly to avoiding cliches and jargon.
Sir Ernest Gowers was born in 1880, and became a leading civil
servant. He ran the civil defence of London during the Second World
War, chaired the Royal Commission into Capital Punishment, wrote
the bestseller, Plain Words, and became the first editor of H. W.
Fowler's classic Dictionary of Modern English Usage.
Rebecca Gowers is the author of The Swamp of Death, shortlisted for
the CWA non-fiction Golden Dagger Award, and of two novels, When to
Walk and The Twisted Heart, both longlisted for the Orange Prize.
Vastly informative and indispensable
*Bill Bryson*
The great Sir Ernest Gowers ... the grand old boy himself
*Lynne Truss*
Itself a model of how plain words should be used
*Telegraph*
Rebecca Gowers has been charged with the task of producing a
version which is true to the spirit of the original but adapted to
the needs of the 21st century. She discharges this task with wit
and delicacy
*Prospect*
A small literary jewel
*Evening News*
Gowers's main precepts are as sensible today as they were when he
first presented them ... beneficial, intelligent and
sympathetic
*David Crystal*
Over half a century after Plain Words was first published, its
principles are as important as ever: say what you mean in the
clearest possible fashion. Rebecca Gowers has done a great job ...
superb
*Caroline Taggart*
One thing that makes Gowers such an engaging figure is that he
isn't prissy, priggish or prim. As far as he is concerned, language
is a living thing that is constantly changing - and this is just as
it should be
*Sunday Telegraph*
Still the best book on English and how to write it ... Unhappy with
versions rewritten by others, Rebecca Gowers, Sir Ernest's
great-granddaughter, has produced a new edition ... The result is
splendid ... Gowers wrote with wit, humanity and common sense ...
[his] central advice should be taped to the screen of anyone
sitting down at a computer keyboard
*Financial Times*
The book has been modernized but preserves all its original charm
... There is arguably a greater need for its circulation among the
general public [than ever before]
*Big Issue*
The zeal with which Sir Ernest uncovers error is matched only by
the wit with which he chastises it
*Evening Standard*
I am glad that attention should be continually drawn to copies of
this book ... I am in full sympathy with the doctrine laid down by
Sir Ernest Gowers
*Sir Winston Churchill*
A delight, a classic of its kind
*John o'London's Weekly*
Great fun to read
*Economist*
Brilliant
*New Statesman*
A sweetly reasonable and wholly admirable guide
*The Times*
It will delight far wider circles than those to whom it is
primarily addressed
*Observer*
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