On the Mark

A roller coaster of a story – John McWhorter * New York Times *
A fascinating history… An appealing, lavishly researched scholarly inquiry into punctuation over the centuries * Guardian *
A delightful tale … rollicking … crammed with fascinating facts * Economist *
A heartily entertaining look at the characters who formed the way we write today … A perceptive examination * Country Life *
An intriguing history * Telegraph *
Entertaining … Hazrat brings an important subject to life * Literary Review *
Delightful … Hazrat believes that punctuation is one of the most extraordinary inventions in human history, and it’s difficult to argue … a heartily entertaining look at the characters who formed the way we write today * Mail on Sunday *
Deft, thoughtful and fascinating. This book exposes the hidden language that surrounds our words – Mark Forsyth, author of THE ETYMOLOGICON
So. Good. So. Sharp. So. Clear. You. Need. This. Book. Period – Lucy Mangan, author of BOOKISH
This wonderful history of punctuation is also a history of the world. In Hazrat’s hands, every story has a point, and every point a story – Simon Garfield, author of JUST MY TYPE
An absolute delight! Rich, wise, and elegantly told. This is a treasure chest of pleasingly obscure information. There is so much more to the written word than the letters of the alphabet – Dennis Duncan, author of INDEX, A HISTORY OF THE
On the Mark is dizzying, compendious and illuminating - a timely and rewarding quest through the past, present and future of punctuation – Keith Houston, author of SHADY CHARACTERS
A thought-provoking history of language’s unsung dots and squiggles. Punctuation may be silent, but thankfully there’s Hazrat to tell the tale – Eli Burnstein, author of DICTIONARY OF FINE DISTINCTIONS

Dr Florence Hazrat is a researcher and writer, and a world expert on the history and culture of punctuation. A BBC New Generation Thinker, Dr Hazrat has appeared on Radio 4’s Word of Mouth and writes the Substack Mind the Gap. Her first book, An Admirable Point, a cultural history of the exclamation mark, was published by Profile in 2022.

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