Guy Deutscher is the author of The Unfolding of Language: The Evolution of Mankind's Greatest Invention. Formerly a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge and of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he is an honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. He lives in Surrey with his wife and two daughters.
A delight to read * Spectator * So robustly researched and wonderfully told that it is hard to put down * New Scientist * Brilliant [and] beautifully written * Financial Times * Fabulously interesting ... a remarkably rich, provocative and intelligent work of pop science * Sunday Times * Jaw-droppingly wonderful ... A marvellous and surprising book which left me breathless and dizzy with delight. The ironic, playful tone at the beginning gradates into something serious that is never pompous, intellectually and historically complex and yet always pellucidly laid out. Plus I learned the word plaidoyer which I shall do my utmost to use every day * Stephen Fry *