With the same engaging style and dry humor that makes the Podictionary podcast popular, Hodgson traces the development of our language using easily recognizable milestones, such as Beowulf, William the Conqueror, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, with a minimum of dates and dry facts.Instead, the story is punctuated with anecdotes about why these characters are so memorable, as well as interesting details on how we know what we know and the conditions of life over the years, as they affected the growth of our language.