ON A tour of the Oxford English Dictionary building, artist and illustrator Sam Winston discovered a “room of lost words” – and the idea for a book was born.
“I was being given a tour by the then director of the OED, Penny Silva, and as we passed by this particular room, she said it was where the lost words were stored,” says Sam, adding with a laugh: “It was this mildly mind-blowing moment for me – that there was a space for words that weren’t in use any more.
“I had no idea this was a thing, but it was a beautiful metaphor for how our language has a shoreline, how words have changed. It was a juicy idea for a book.”
The resulting book, six years later, is The Dictionary Story, created by Sam and award-winning author and artist Oliver Jeffers, whose beautiful children’s books include Lost and Found, The Way Back Home and How to Catch a Star.
The two men are coming to Glasgow on August 19 to share their inspiration, illustrative techniques and their mission to inspire a love of words for a new generation of readers.
Sam reveals he also discovered that words like cauliflower, acorn and chestnut are now no longer in the Oxford Junior English Dictionary.
“That is much more painful to listen to – celebrity is in, for example, but blackberry is out, which is a bit of a wake-up call about the way we live our lives, isn’t it?” says Sam.
“Are we spending time on our screens, rather than being outside picking blackberries?
“But you can’t shoot the messenger. The Junior OED is a much smaller book, of course, requiring more editorial decisions about what is left in, and what is taken out.”
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Most picture books for children contain around 500 to 1000 words, but The Dictionary Story has something close to 20,000, thanks to the multitude of definitions Sam and Oliver have scattered throughout its pages.
Meanwhile, the funny and clever main story about Dictionary herself – who wants to be in her own adventure, but finds that when she brings her words to life, things quickly spiral out of control - winds its way along the top.
“We thought it would be a beautiful thing to have all these words like blackberry and acorn appear in our book, which will hopefully be a success, and then those ‘lost’ words will be back in print again in hundreds of places,” says Sam, who lives in London.
“It’s a book that I wish I had as a kid. When I was young, I didn't understand words, my imagination was crazy and reading seemed like torture.
“This book is for that person. I hope it inspires a reluctant reader to pick up a book and smile. Because when a child realises how powerful the spell of words can be, a new world of opportunities opens up for them."
The book has been a real labour of love, says Oliver, who was born in Australia, brought up in Northern Ireland and now lives in New York.
“There was a definite groan when we realised how many definitions we wanted to include, but we decided really early on that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it properly,” he adds, smiling.
“It’s always incredibly fun to work with Sam and this book was six years in the making, so it feels almost abstract to actually have it out there, for other people to read. We’re looking forward to coming to Glasgow.”
The event in Glasgow is aimed at older children and adults “who love creativity and storytelling”, adds Sam.
“I hope it will inspire younger people to think about where ideas come from and to look at the world in new ways,” he explains.
“When you’re a child, the dictionary is an inaccessible object in many ways, so we wanted to bring it to life in a playful way, to hopefully encourage young people to use it, and to write their own stories.”
Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston In Conversation is at Waterstone’s Sauchiehall Street on August 19 at 7pm.
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