Quarto to simultaneously release children's and adult debut by Tom Read Wilson

In a company first, Quarto is to simultaneously publish the debut children’s and adult book by etymologist and presenter Tom Read Wilson.

Quarto’s associate publisher Holly Willsher acquired world rights from George Ashton at Ashton Artists. Quarto is promising one of its biggest promotional campaigns to date, twinning an ambitious social media and broadcast programme with an extensive large-venue events tour. 

Read Wilson is the client co-ordinator on Channel 4’s “Celebs Go Dating” and regularly shares “word of the day” etymology lessons with his social media following of more than 450,000. He is also the host of words and language podcast, “Tom Read Wilson has Words With…” where he discusses etymological quirks and stories with other celebrities ranging from David Walliams to Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. 

The upcoming Quarto titles “bottle Read Wilson’s fun-filled approach to etymology”, and will publish simultaneously in October 2022, with the audio of the adult book being released a month earlier in September. 

Illustrated picture book Every Word Tells a Story takes children on “a rip-roaring tour through an A-Z of the most astonishing and amusing words in the English language”. Written for children aged eight and above with illustrations from Ian Morris, the book plays off the fact that even the most ordinary sounding word can have the most extraordinary story behind it. The publisher said: “From ‘Aardvark’ to ‘Zombie’ each fascinating word is explored through a quirky, amusing story with accompanying etymology, word origin and definition.”

Willsher added: “This is the book Tom was born to write, Every Word Tells a Story is a treasure-trove of wit, wisdom and wonderful facts. His passion for language and etymology is infectious and I cannot wait for this enthusiasm to be shared with young readers. We are so proud to be publishing both Tom’s books and working with him to build a whole new generation of wordsmiths and linguaphiles!”

Adult book On the Tip of my Tongue (Aurum) provides “a hilarious compendium of words, their origins and practical applications, and is designed to help readers navigate any modern-day situation with eloquence and grace”. The book is divided into sections spanning dating, personal development, compliments, curses and more. 

Aurum publisher Katie Bond said: “On the Tip of my Tongue is an etymological chocolate box of witty wordsmithery. From ‘bathukopian’ to ‘chrometophobia’, settle in for a smorgasbord of unusual words, interesting derivations, new coinings and the huge pleasure of Tom Read Wilson’s lexical cherry-picking.”

Read Wilson said: “Having written two books about words, it feels rather feeble to say that words fail me when attempting to convey my excitement about their contemporaneous release. Nevertheless, my excitement is ineffable. My father, an English teacher, unlocked word stories for me through his love of etymology. I hope these books both serve as an invitation into the sandbox of word play, of lexical ingenuity and delicious coinings. I live in that sandbox so, I hope, you will find me omnipresent in these pages to play with you.”