Torbjorn Lundmark: Quirky Qwerty

By MARGIE THOMSON

Why qwerty and not abcdefg? The familiar keyboard layout has become fundamental to our lives and the way we communicate, yet it hasn't been around all that long - since about 1870 - and hasn't changed much in the time since.

Lundmark is a livewire linguist with as much character as the keyboard itself. He breathes the keys to life, denoting a history and personality to each letter, and going right back to ancient hieroglyphics to explain how we got to where we are today with our alphabet and punctuation. He even explains why we dot our "i"s.

It was first added, he quips, by a scribe in the Middle English period who had an i for clarity and a desire to make a point. This is a must for anyone keen on the written word.

UNSW Press

$34.95