Punctuation is not a mere ornament or a curiosity — it is essential, and we need to know about it. Keith Houston’s history is entertaining and readable. Ian Sansom, The Guardian

Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks, illustrated with over seventy images, is published in North America by W. W. Norton. It is published in the UK by Penguin Books as Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Other Typographical Curiosities .

Praise for Shady Characters :

If Eats, Shoots & Leaves whetted your appetite on the subject of punctuation, then you have a treat in store. Shady Characters is an authoritative, witty, and fascinating tour of the history and rationale behind such lesser known marks as the ampersand, manicule, the pilcrow, and the interrobang. Keith Houston also explains the octothorpe — otherwise known as the hashtag — and my final comment on his book is #awesome. Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad

Make no mistake: this is a book of secrets. With zeal and rigor, Keith Houston cracks open the &, the #, the † and more — all the little matryoshka dolls of meaning that make writing work. Inside, we meet novelists, publishers, scholars and scribes; we range from ancient Greeks to hashtagged tweets; and we see the weird and wonderful foundations of the most successful technology of all time. By which I mean, of course: this. These marks and scribbles. Honestly, it gets almost theological: how many stories can you fit on the head of a †? The answer — and the stories — will surprise you. Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

I’m a sucker for this stuff. The @ is called chiocciola (snail) in Italian! The & was once taught as a letter of the alphabet! The manicule has been with us for a millennium! Thank you, Keith Houston, for bringing these little mysteries out of the shadows of typographic history. Constance Hale, author of Vex, Hex, Smash and Smooch and Sin and Syntax

For fans of Lynn Truss’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves , this bestiary of lesser-known punctuation marks is a wonder. Publishers Weekly

More than a mere catalog of curious trivia, it’s an absolutely fascinating blend of history, design, sociology, and cultural poetics — highly recommended. Maria Popova at Brain Pickings

This book has more in common with Malcolm Gladwell than with standard history writing. Library Journal

Houston explores the roles a variety of punctuation marks have played in the popular imagination. The forgotten manicule, the modest dash and the ampersand all make appearances, as do intriguing characters from millennia past. The book is often engrossing… An unusual triumph of the human ability to find exaltation in the mundane. Kirkus Reviews

Engaging typographical journeys […] Houston brings to life a history of ingenuity and imagination. Rose Wild, The Times

[S]cholarly, highly readable and, on some deeper level, slightly deranged. Marcus Berkmann, The Spectator

[W]ritten in a jaunty tone, laced with geeky relish. ★ ★ ★ ★ Jon Day, The Daily Telegraph

Questions about the book? Leave a comment below, or get in touch via the Contact page. As with any book, some errors slip through the cracks before publication; read about errata here.