Illustration credits

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 573.

1. Runic letters, © Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery. NWHCM: 1939.77.N59f:A 2

2. Sir Terry Pratchet at Peach Pie Street, © Tim Mossford/UNP 18

3. Kilroy was here 32

4. The Venerable Bede sits writing in his study, from The Life and Miracles of St Cuthbert 40

5. Just Visiting , corner of the Monopoly board 60

6. In the Wee Small Hours , Frank Sinatra album sleeve, 1955 71

7. Yorkshire Penny Bank Building, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, © Mark Sunderland Photography, photographersdirect.com 84

8. A child's hornbook, The British Library 100

9. US scholars toasting Ben Johnson on the 200th anniversary of Johnson's Dictionary . Photo by Walter Sanders/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images 127

10. The Oxford Gazette , November 1665 135

11. Cover image from Chicken Licken , Ladybird Easy Reading series 146

12. Cover images from Harry Potter and the Philopher's Stone , published in the UK by Bloomsbury; and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , published in the USA by Scholastic, written by J. K. Rowling 152

13. An early advertisement by Bell Telephones 164

14. Lukaut long bulmakau , a Tok Pisin sign from Papua New Guinea © Michael Pennay 179

15. ‘Betty Rules OK' 1 June 1977: Residents of the Aintree Estate, Fulham, London, express their sentiments in a celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Photo by Central Press/Getty Images 184

16. Poster showing Karel Čapek's Robot, Library of Congress 200

17. Belinda Blurb, with thanks to Stan Carey 214

18. Let's Stalk Strine , book jacket from 1965 218

19. ‘Gotcha', Sun front page, 4 May 1982 228

20. Emoticons, Western and Eastern variations 243