With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson-the acclaimed author of The Lost Continent-brilliantly explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun from the English language. From your first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your doggie can’t), to the great lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an insufficient, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into among the world’s largest growth industries.