The Surgeon of Crowthorne

A gripping tale of violent passions and madness and the precise meaning of words. Two men, miles apart, toil away on a formidable project that was scheduled to take 10 years but in the event demanded 71. Their booklined rooms keep them safe from the roar of the outside world - one a study at Oxford University, the other a cell in Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. James Murray, editor of The Oxford English Dictionary, is a willing captive, a respectable academic content in his tower, while Dr W C Minor, one of the OED's most prodigious and painstaking contributors, is held for his own safety as he is constantly pulled back into the maelstrom of his own private madness. They both delight in their task, however, and communicate over many years by footnote, annotation and cross-reference. Winchester is a maddeningly good writer and invests a tale that, in truth, is almost without incident with genuine pace and tension. (Kirkus UK)