Rarely has a book so packed with accurate and well researched factual information been so widely read and popularly acclaimed. This Second Edition of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language has been fully revised for a new generation of language-lovers. The book is longer and includes extensive new material on world English and Internet English, in addition to completely updated statistics, further reading suggestions and other references.
First Edition Hb (1995): 0-521-40179-8 First Edition Pb (1997): 0-521-59655-6 David Crystal is a leading authority on language, and author of many books, including most recently Shakespeare's Words (Penguin, 2002), Language and the Internet (Cambridge, 2001) and Language Death (Cambridge, 2000). An internationally renowned writer, journal editor, lecturer and broadcaster, he received an Order of the British Empire in 1995 for his services to the English language.

The Hutchinson Illustrated Encyclopedia of British History is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the people, events, and ideas that have shaped Britain from prehistory to the present day. The editors have also sought to convey the truth that history is more than simply a compilation of facts from the past.
The editors have included as much factual information as possible in each A-Z entry, and numerous tables and statistics are included, as well as many specially-created maps and plans. The chronological relationships of past events and lives are conveyed through various detailed subject chronologies (attached to the relevant A-Z entries). A large thematic chronology, following the A-Z text, provides a visual reference to the relationship between the events of British/Irish history and events elsewhere in the world. And the cultural context of as many entries as possible has been brought to life via a wide range of illustrations, which provide a wealth of visual detail and, often, a key to past conceptions.