he Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester is
the fascinating true story of two men who worked
on the Oxford English Dictionary. Dr James Murray
was the editor of the dictionary. Dr William Minor was a
madman and a convicted murderer. From his room in
Broadmoor, the asylum for the criminally insane, he sent in
thousands of contributions to the dictionary and his
working partnership and friendship with Murray lasted
nearly twenty years.
The book begins with the story of the first meeting of