Why Americans have gone bonkers over Lynne’s latest book

Why Americans have gone bonkers over Lynne's latest book. "When people talk about the love-hate relationship between British and American English, the hate mostly goes one way and the love the other." Lynne Murphy , Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex, is explaining why she felt compelled to write The Prodigal Tongue , a wry examination of the welcome and unwelcome influences and exchanges in language between the two nations. The book, published at the end of March, has received rave reviews, both in the UK and across the pond, and has proved so popular that it's already into its third US print run. The FT describes it as "witty and erudite", while London-based American novelist Lionel Shriver, writing in Times Literary Supplemen t , says it's a "potpourri of enchanting, counter-intuitive surprises". Lynne, who is giving her professorial lecture on the subject on Wednesday 9 May , provides plenty of proof from her extensive research that, rather than becoming homogenous, both versions of the language are growing and expanding. "There's no denying that American English has an effect on British English," says Lynne, "But there's no reason to exaggerate it either. If you don't look for ways in which British English is holding its own, or diverging, then you are not going to find it.