The Adventure of English cover art

The Adventure of English

The Biography of a Language

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Adventure of English

By: Melvyn Bragg
Narrated by: Robert Powell
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language.

The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.

©2003 Melvyn Bragg (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Communication & Social Skills Personal Development Words, Language & Grammar Thought-Provoking Inspiring Funny Imperialism

Listeners also enjoyed...

 A History of Britain: Volume 1 cover art
Twelve Books That Changed the World cover art
In Our Time: The Written World cover art
One Nation, Under Gods cover art
A Little History of the World cover art
222 QI Answers to Your Quite Ingenious Questions cover art
Voices of the Powerless: The Complete Series cover art
A Brief History of the Vikings cover art
Mother Tongue cover art
The Man Who Invented Fiction cover art
In Xanadu cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1660 - 1851 cover art
Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue cover art
Scots: The Mither Tongue cover art
Yiddish cover art
Words on the Move cover art

Critic reviews

"Both entertaining and informative." (Booklist)

"This 'biography' succeeds in its broad, sweeping narrative." (Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
Lively narration on a fascinating topic.
This book will improve your understanding of the world, where it's been, where it's going and how.

Highly Recommend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just wish the "chapter" breaks in the audio matched the chapters of the text, rather than the breaks between the audio CDs. Otherwise, it was faultless - engaging story and exceptionally well told.

Absolutely loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I came across a CD of this book years ago, but it was narrated by the author, who like most of us, does not possess the narrative skills of Robert Powell. Powell is superb in reciting languages, including Old English, and his brilliance allows the listener to appreciate the book. Bragg’s account of the history of English introduces us to the factors affecting languages and emphasises their importance to nAtions, but it is also a very interesting story in itself. There is much to captivate here, including an account of American English (more faithful, we are old, to older English than the British versions of English) and the influence of Norse and French on modern English. An excellent book and a masterful narration.

Excellent book made wonderful by a superb narrator

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a well read presentation of a fascinating and complex subject - the history and development of a language. The reader impressively handles dialectical and historical pronunciations, and deals well with lists of words which are not easy content for an audiobook.

My only real criticism of the book is that the author seems still to believe in the discredited 'dark ages' view of pre-Reformation Europe - even at the cost of obvious inconsistency. After describing how the Catholic Church supposedly rejected the sacral use of any language other than Latin, because Latin was the "preserve of religion", he then describes the use of Latin in international science and communication in exactly the same period, apparently not noticing the discrepancy - and apparently unaware of religious texts in English before this time. The problem is that things like that do make one wonder where else his historical accuracy may be questionable.

But overall it is a very good listen, and the reading is excellent.

The sweeping story of a language

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Highly recommend this to anyone interested history and development of the English language.
Alternatively highly recommend this to anyone who just enjoys a good story.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyable for anyone who likes history or languages. As a teacher of English as a foreign language, it was very interesting to pick out all the influences and words from other languages that have made up English. Long may that continue!

Great for language enthusiasts

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
At a time when people both here and abroad show complete lack of respect for the UK, this story shows completely why we remain the greatest country on earth.

The author takes us on a journey of words, of language and of history.

From the beautiful, quite incredible tongue of old English, through to the modern day speech, we see the English language's strength and resilience. indeed, there was, and still is, open warfare on our words.

The book is wonderful, and makes me proud

Proud to be English

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Probably the best commentary on the English language ever. Melvyn Bragg at his best. Anyone who uses English for any reason should read this book.






Melvyn at his best!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The origins of English. The way English has fit itself to it's users and been manipulated by groups was fascinating from start to finish.
If you like English, etymology or linguistics this is a worthwhile listen

A really interesting exploration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely fascinating. Definitely I will be listening again. Too much to absorb with one reading.

Great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews