Guilty by Definition

About the Author

Susie Dent is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated 30 years as a co-presenter and the resident word expert on C4's Countdown, and also appears on the show's comedy sister 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news. She has contributed to discussions on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Word of Mouth, Saturday Live, More or Less, Today, and on Radio 5 Live's Breakfast and Drive programmes. She has made guest appearances on many TV programmes including BBC Breakfast, Newsnight, This Morning, Test the Nation, Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Not Going Out, and The One Show.

Susie answers notes and queries about words and phrases in weekly columns in the Radio Times, The Week Junior, the I newspaper, and Why Now. She has written for the Independent on Sunday, The Telegraph, and The Times, and is the author of several books, including her latest, An Emotional Dictionary: Real Words for How You Feel, from Angst to Zwodder, published in 2022.

She is a spokesperson for Oxford University Press, and has been a judge on the Costa Book Awards and on the Academy Excellence Awards. Susie regularly delivers key-note speeches to both small companies and major corporations on language and communication.

Susie lives in Oxford where she has developed a passion for cycling - Lycra or no, she is never without her little black book for jotting down any new words picked up in the wild.

@susie_dent