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Shady Characters

The secret life of punctuation

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Shady Characters is miscellany, books, and more from Keith Houston. Here you’ll find information technologies of the unorthodox kind: from emoji to unusual marks of punctuation; from codices to calculators; and everything in between.

Now available to pre-order, Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji. Learn more

Shady Char­ac­ters advent calendar 2025: HOT SPRINGS

December 7, 2025

Welcome to the 2025 Shady Characters advent calendar! I’ll be counting down to Christmas by way of ten of the most interesting, controversial, and downright odd emoji to have appeared on our screens. Enjoy, and come back every other day or so for a new entry!

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Part of a series on 2025 Advent calendar writing emoji Leave a comment

Shady Char­ac­ters advent calendar 2025: FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY

December 5, 2025

Welcome to the 2025 Shady Characters advent calendar! I’ll be counting down to Christmas by way of ten of the most interesting, controversial, and downright odd emoji to have appeared on our screens. Enjoy, and come back every other day or so for a new entry!

Read more →

Part of a series on 2025 Advent calendar writing emoji 2 Comments

A Face with Tears of Joy book launch!

August 22, 2025

Belatedly, Face with Tears of Joy is having a launch party! I’ll be at Linlithgow’s best bookshop, Far From the Madding Crowd, at 6.30pm on Wednesday October 15th for drinks, snacks, chat, and maybe even a reading from the book. The details are here, on Facebook, and you can get your complimentary ticket at the Madding Crowd website.

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We have Face with Tears of Joy audio book winners!

August 15, 2025

Congratulations to Mike Poteet, Red, Claire Little and Barbara Matton, winners of the Face with Tears of Joy audio book giveaway! Their names were picked at random from the set of all entrants who replied to the original post about the competition. Thank you all for taking part!

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Win the Face with Tears of Joy audio book!

August 1, 2025

The Face with Tears of Joy audio book is out now, narrated by Michael Butler Murray, and this is your chance to win one of four free copies at audiobooks.com. To enter, leave a comment on this post with a valid email address so that I can contact you in the event that you win.

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book, competition emoji 19 Comments

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Cover for "Face with Tears of Joy", showing the face with tears of joy emoji throughout emoji history
Face with Tears of Joy paperback. (W. W. Norton, 2025.)

My absolute recommendation as the definitive book on emoji history.

Jeremy Burge, founder of Emojipedia

A fascinatingly geeky and witty history.

Steven Poole, The Guardian

A delightful history.

Hunter Dukes, The Telegraph

A history of emoji, where they came from and how they came to dominate our discourse is much needed, and Houston is a witty, pacey raconteur…Face with Tears of Joy is a comprehensive and often illuminating read.

Chris Stokel-Walker, New Scientist
    Buy at Norton
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The sun rises behind a pocket calculator, whose display reads "07734"
Empire of the Sum hardcover. (W. W. Norton, 2023.)

An entertaining, informative story about a technology that defined an era.

Kirkus Reviews

To describe a calculator as “a symphony of solenoids and switches” (that would be an early, discarded model of what would become the Casio 14-A, which went on the market in 1975 for $1,347) may not be erotica, but it is good writing — and these days, the latter is rather more rare.

Alexander Nazaryan, New York Times
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Paperback cover of "The Book", showing the title on a cream band against a dark green background.
The Book paperback. (W. W. Norton, 2025.)

Erudite, playful, and illuminating…a splendid, challenging mixture of information and fun.

Kirkus Reviews

Hundreds of books about books have been published during the past century…I will not claim that this one is the very best of all time. Yet The Book is possibly the best of our time.

Steven Heller, Eye Magazine

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Shady Characters paperback (W. W. Norton, 2014).
Shady Characters paperback (W. W. Norton, 2014).

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

Scholarly, highly readable and, on some deeper level, slightly deranged.

Marcus Berkmann, The Spectator

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© Keith Houston 2010–2025 · Colophon