Why Q Needs USA!

A personal newsflash: today (June 2nd) sees the US release of my bestselling banquet of historico-linguistic nerdery, Why Q Needs U – that book about the alphabet and the English language that came out in the UK last October and has consistently haunted British bookshops since then. Despite its British origins and (very) British author, the book was never written with just one country and its English speaker-readers in mind. If it had been, it would’ve been much easier to write. The author winces to recall the writing and rewriting of its various attempts at guiding the reader towards imagining specific sounds, regardless of accent, in the mute medium of a book. Instead, Why Q Needs U was ambitiously intended for a global readership, no matter where you got your English. From today onwards, copies of WQNU should be available on the physical and virtual shelves of American retailers (through which, I guess, Canadian, Mexican and Caribbean purchases will become easier too). Amazon is of…