Extensively researched and compellingly told, it introduces us to the passionate drama and violent upheaval of eleventh-century Europe. The world as we know it, and the English language, would have been vastly different were it not for the driving ambition of one man: William the Conqueror. But conquerors are made, not born, and William was made in fire and blood. How does a boy become a man, surviving a tumultuous and terrifying childhood? And how does that man become a legend? William Rising plunges us into this world of danger and betrayal, of choosing sides and dying for absolutes. It follows the creation of a conqueror, as he grows up abandoned, learns to fight at an early age for anything he hopes to keep, and is sculpted into a remorseless, far-sighted, ruthlessly efficient soldier and statesman. From his origins as an orphaned, penniless bastard boy, to his personal and political trials by fire, to the climactic battle with his rebellious barons where he finally comes of age, the young duke increasingly establishes himself as a force to be reckoned with. But as the shadowy intrigues of English politics, and the all-consuming question of an heir for a childless king, begin to draw him into their web, it may just be that William of Normandy has a destiny far greater than even he has ever dreamed.

    The bath, the fridge, the lamp post, the bicycle, the tree. so far, so humdrum.But not if you are Dominic Wilcox. Dominic sees things a little differently. For him, inside each of these everyday things are hundreds of surprising ideas waiting to be discovered.The Portable Bottom Seat, the Sick Bag Beard, Wrist Nets for the Butterfingered - Dominic's unexpected inventions, conflations and modifications promise to make your life that little bit easier, or at least more amusing.Normal will never seem quite so normal again.

    Like Volume I, it is an internal history of the structure of English that combines traditional historical linguistics, modern syntactic theory, the study of languagesin contact, and the variationist approach to language change.The first part of the book considers the development of Northwest and West Germanic, and the northern dialects of the latter, with particular reference to phonological and morphological phenomena. Later chapters present a detailed account of changes in the Old English sound system, inflectionalsystem, and syntax. The book aims to make the findings of traditional historical linguistics accessible to scholars and students in other subdisciplines, and also to adopt approaches from contemporary theoretical linguistics in such a way that they are accessible to a wide range of historicallinguists.

    At the centre of the narrative are the Cumbri, or North Britons, an ancient people whose kings ruled from a power base in the lower valley of the River Clyde. In the tenth century, these kings extended their rule southward to the Solway Firth and beyond, bringing their language and culture to districts that had been in English hands for more than two hundred years. Their kingdom, known as Strathclyde or Cumbria, became one of the great powers of the time. Its history is an important chapter in the tale of how England and Scotland emerged from the early medieval period or ‘Dark Ages’ as the countries we know today.