David Crystal is the world's best known linguist. He is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. His books include Linguistics, Language and Religion (1965), The Stories of English (Penguin, 2004) The Fight for English (OUP 2006), and Just a Phrase I'm Going Through: my Life in Language (Routledge 2009). He has written extensively on religious language, including 'Linguistics and Liturgy' for Church Quarterly in 1969 and 'Language in Church' for The Tablet in 1985.

• Prologue 1 ; Prologue 2 ; 1. In the beginning ; 2. Let there be light ; 3. Be fruitful and multiply ; 4. My brother's keeper? ; 5. Two by two ; 6. A coat of many colours ; 7. Fire and brimstone ; 8. Begat ; 9. Thou shalt not ; 10. Manna, milk, and honey ; 11. Eyes, teeth, and loins ; 12. What hath been wrought ; 13. Bread alone ; 14. How are the mighty fallen! ; 15. The skin of one's teeth ; 16. Out of the mouths of babes ; 17. Pride goes before a fall ; 18. Nothing new under the sun ; 19. Fly in the ointment ; 20. No peace for the wicked ; 21. Be horribly afraid ; Interlude ; 22. Seeing the light ; 23. Eyes, ears, cheeks ; 24. Speaking, shouting, wailing, writing ; 25. Shaking, turning, moving ; 26. Many and few, first and last ; 27. Fights, foes, fools, friends ; 28. Praising famous men ; 29. Sheep, goats, swine ; 30. Money, wages, pearls, mites ; 31. Blessed are the servants ; 32. Heal thyself ; 33. Times and seasons ; 34. Birth, life, and death ; 35. Countries, kingdoms, Armageddon ; 36. Building houses, mansions, sepulchres ; 37. Millstones, crosses, yokes, pricks ; 38. Sowing seeds ; 39. Salt and wine ; 40. The law, judges, thieves, swords ; 41. Love and charity ; 42. Peace and patience, wrath, whore ; Epilogue ; Appendixes ; Indexes

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