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The beauty of the ampersand and other keyboard symbols

27 March 2021

9:00 AM

27 March 2021

9:00 AM

Hyphens and Hashtags: The Stories Behind the Symbols on our Keyboards Claire Cock-Starkey

Bodleian Library, pp.184, 12.99

This is such a great idea: a book with one short essay per punctuation mark or typographical symbol. Of course, our commas, ampersands and exclamation marks all come from somewhere; all were invented at some point or another and their stories are ever-changing. Computer coders, for example, have recently moved previously unsung but elegant marks such as the hashtag and the ‘at’ sign back to centre stage.

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