When my daughter Dee did her first year in English in UCC she was recommended as a text book in linguistics to read The English Language by David Crystal. This is a wonderfully readable book about the origins, usage and rules of the English language. When she finished her year she presented me with the book as she recognised that it would one I would read with pleasure.
She was right. I enjoyed it very much, but then I am a self confessed word nerd.
This Christmas she and daughter Eileen gave me another book by the same author, By Hook or By Crook which is a wonderful, anecdotal book about the authors travels around England and Wales and his telling the stories of the words he encounters there,(and yes he does mention Waterford’s claim to origin of the title of his book)

I enjoyed the book so much I decided to write and tell Mr Crystal how much it had pleased me , and, (because I thought he might be interested) to let him read my theory of Sir Clifford Chatterley’s lover which I have blogged here.
To my delight I received a most pleasant and interested reply from him within an hour.
Thank you David Crystal.
I discovered that, like myself, he writes a blog, mainly devoted to words, their usage and origins here.

He has just got himself another constant reader.