\n Danny Bate, who now lives in Prague but who grew up in south Norfolk and went to school in Norwich, has just finished his debut work Why Q Needs U.\n<\/p>\n
\n Danny Bate’s new book, Why Q Needs U(Image: Peter Walsh, Norwich)\n<\/p>\n
\n It is an intriguing journey through the English alphabet, delving into history, archaeology, politics and linguistics in the pursuit of where we get our writing from.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Bate also looks to answer some of the questions thrown up by our language, like “why there is there a K in knee or a B in debt?”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Danny Bate with his new book Why Q Needs U(Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n The 29-year-old flew back to the UK – and Norfolk – to help try and “spread the word” about the book at various events, including in London.\n<\/p>\n
\n The University of York and University of Cambridge graduate – who took a PhD in linguistics at the University of Edinburgh – has turned his passion for the study of historical language and etymology into the basis for his first publication.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I just really wanted to write a book,” said Mr Bate.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said the idea for the book was driven by a love of language and understanding where it all came from, how it started and has evolved.\n<\/p>\n
\n From conception to published book, it had taken Mr Bate around two years to get to this stage.\n<\/p>\n
\n Danny Bate with his new book Why Q Needs U(Image: Peter Walsh, Newsquest)\n<\/p>\n
\n But he said he had a “five-month window” to write “the bulk of the text” and “research it” after originally forming the idea in December 2023.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although he had 26 letters to write about Mr Bate said there were some favourites among the alphabet.\n<\/p>\n
\n “There were definitely some letters I enjoyed writing about more than others,” he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of Mr Bate’s favourites was A. He said N was the letter he least enjoyed penning a chapter on, even though his own name contains two of the letters.\n<\/p>\n
\n The book has garnered high praise from another Norfolk son Stephen Fry with the actor, comedian, broadcaster and writer describing it as a “wonderful achievement” which he “couldn’t recommend it more highly”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The book Why Q Needs U is published by Bonnier Books UK and available from all good book shops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danny Bate, who now lives in Prague but who grew up in south Norfolk and went to school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-475861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115321618583783890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}