Author: Andrew Robinson
Title: The Story of Writing
Genre: Language
Year: 1995
Pages: 220
Origin: a tried and trusted library book
Nod Rating: 3 nods out of 5
‘Writing is among the greatest inventions in human history, perhaps the greatest invention, since it made history possible.’
This is the central argument within Andrew Robinson’s
engaging book The Story of Writing. In the space of two hundred well-designed
pages, Robinson manages to chart writing’s history: from the early days of cave
paintings to its various branches and off-shoots. The Worm finds such boasting
of ‘350 illustrations, 50 in colour’ as rather endearing; harking back to
innocent times when colour was a feature that was useable as a bragging
instrument. However, there is a greater seriousness within the print itself.
Robinson focuses on some of the key developments in writing.
These include the story of the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone; extinct forms
of writing (including cuneiform and hieroglyphs, as well as the interesting
Linear B script); as well as those pesky undecipherable scripts such as Cretan
Linear B, Etruscan inscriptions and the fabulously named Rongorongo. We chart
the evolution of the alphabet, with a particular focus on Chinese and Japanese
and how it exits within the media and society in the present day.
The reader is treated to various detours down confusing
alleyways of human language, forever turning back upon Egyptian hieroglyphics
(of which the author is assuredly obsessed). Like the splendid Bill Bryson,
Robinson picks up the story of those daring adventurers who deciphered the
ancient scripts in the Victorian period. These include the likes of such
enigmatic names as Jean-Francois Champollion and Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson.
The Worm can safely say that he has never read a more
authoritative and entertaining book on hieroglyphics. In fact, the Worm has
never read a book on hieroglyphics; which makes the first sentence of this
paragraph appear rather redundant. However, the Worm confidently states that
the read caused much chin-stroking merriment that he will consider reading
subsequent books on hieroglyphics; on which the author, Andrew Robinson, is
clearly to thank. The Story of Writing is not a classic of a text, and perhaps
– and quite rightly should be if research continues – it will be superseded
within a time. However, it is an entertaining text that makes the throat utter
glottal sounds of wonder at the discovery of the vast amount of facts that
abound on every page. With the reader now knowing the Worm’s depth of
hieroglyphic knowledge, they can be content with feeling secure that The Story
of Writing can provide a nice introduction into this confusing, bamboozling and
wonderful world.
