I have just finished reading one of the most enjoyable and pleasing novels I’ve read in a long time. Someone on our Italian trip was reading it and recommended it. She was right.
“The Dictionary of Lost Words” is an imaginative and engrossing story about words, language, love and loss all tied up in the life of a growing-up narrator who is five years old at the start in 1886 and helping her “Da’ in the Scriptorium. The novel ends in the 1920s as the Oxford English Dictionary is published. 
The evening sun makes lovely shadows above the mantlepiece – here of a beautiful piece of Esther Smith’s work, an automaton of a Hare and a flower.
We have had a torrid three weeks with a medical problem hanging over me. Today, it has been resolved and all is well, much to our enormous relief.
Cendrine Marrouat
June 19, 2024 at 3:08 am
I’m glad you are better! This books looks wonderful, I’ll have to check it out. Great photo as well!
mybeautfulthings
June 20, 2024 at 8:28 pm
Thank you. It’s certainly a good read that kept me entranced. 🙂
Cendrine Marrouat
June 19, 2024 at 3:07 am
I’m glad you are better. This book looks wonderful! I’ll have to check it out. Great shot as well!
utesmile
June 11, 2024 at 3:01 pm
Good to hear those 3 weeks ended well. Now you can enjoy Life more again. Sending love ♥♥♥
mybeautfulthings
June 13, 2024 at 7:42 pm
Thank you, yes, we can get back to normal – a big relief. 🙂
nrhatch
June 11, 2024 at 12:50 pm
I started reading The Dictionary of Lost Words a few years back. Loved the beginning but don’t recall how it ended . . . which may mean that I didn’t finish it. I abandon books with great regularity these days. If I stop enjoying the flow of words, I stop reading and pick up the next book in my bottomless TBR stack.
So glad you had some good news on the health front, Sally.
mybeautfulthings
June 13, 2024 at 7:40 pm
I know exactly what you mean about abandoning any book that doesn’t fit the bill. There are so many good ones out there, I can’t waste time on ones that don’t work for me. My TBR stack doesn’t really go down. Our favourite coffee shop has shelves of books for £1 which you can read while having your coffee and buy if they catch your imagination. I rarely leave without one. :). Thanks for sharing our relief.
artfulcrone
June 11, 2024 at 11:52 am
Glad to hear all is well!
mybeautfulthings
June 13, 2024 at 7:36 pm
Thank you. 🙂
Heyjude
June 11, 2024 at 9:42 am
Sounds like a lovely book and I’m glad the health issue has been resolved.
mybeautfulthings
June 13, 2024 at 7:35 pm
It is certainly a good read, so good I could lose myself in it even when I was so worried. Big relief that it turned out well. 🙂
Hils
June 10, 2024 at 7:16 pm
Very glad indeed to hear that xx
mybeautfulthings
June 13, 2024 at 7:33 pm
Thank you. It has been quite a difficult time. xx