The Languages of the World

"Actually I wouldn’t say that it’s daunting because it’s a one-volume reference work set out in a very user-friendly way. Outside of a heavy volume of linguistics, it is the best way of understanding the connections between different languages. It might seem a slightly odd book to include, but the reason I did so is because it was incredibly useful when I was trying to understand the movement of people. And while I was obviously interested in particular areas, it covers the whole world. Not really. Certainly lots of people have passed through – the Moguls, the Sikhs, the Persians – many, many different peoples. But the dominant language there is Pashto. And obviously as it close to Peshawar, there is a lot of Urdu, and the Afghan version of Persian, which is Dari."