David Crystal is a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. He published the first of his 100 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies, in such fields as intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts, notably in the development of a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. He held a chair at the University of Reading for 10 years, and is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor.
David Crystal’s authored works are mainly in the field of language, including several Penguin books, but he is perhaps best known for his two encyclopedias for Cambridge University Press, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Recent books include The Story of English in 100 Words (2011) and Spell it out: the singular story of English spelling (2012). Co-authored books include Words on Words (2000, a dictionary of language quotations compiled with his wife and business-partner, Hilary – Wheatley Medal, 2001) and Shakespeare’s Words (2002) and The Shakespeare Miscellany (2005), the last two in collaboration with his actor son, Ben. A new book with Hilary Crystal, Wordsmiths and Warriors: the English-language Tourist’s guide to Britain, was published in September 2013. Other Shakespeare work includes a regular article for the magazine of Shakespeare’s Globe, Around the Globe. Think On My Words, an introduction to Shakespeare’s language, appeared in 2008. All Shakespeare books can be viewed at The Shakespeare Portal. A new version of the glossary went live in 2008: see Shakespeare’s Words.
