Combines personal reflections, historical allusions, and traveler's observations about the author's encounters with language and its users throughout the English-speaking world.

Originally published by HarperPress in 2007 under title: By hook or by crook.

By hook or by crook : Gaerwen -- Making a beeline : Menai -- We want information : Portmeiron -- Where are you from? : Welshpool -- Good evening, each : Birmingham -- Book-browser syndrome : Hay -- Now Godiva was a lady : Leominster -- The robot's not working : Risbury -- Who was Leonard Slye? : Stratford -- Shall we shog? : Kolkata -- A rash of dermatologists : Arden -- A wheelbarrow called Wilberforce : Lichfield -- How do you like your eggs? : San Francisco -- My husband is without : Lodz -- I'm Jack : Llangollen.