As someone who has once too often heard a pained sigh of disapproval as an errant curse escapes from my lips, or seen with dismay a new swear jar on the kitchen windowsill, I can safely say that Holy Sh!t by Melissa Mohr has a refreshingly unabashed approach to our relationship with expletives.

Whether it’s the Romans, God or those snuff taking dandies of the 18th century, Mohr navigates our transition from the holy to the shit of swearing with ease, brilliantly demonstrating the origin of those naughty little words and exploring why it is we find them so offensive.

Although the exploration of the etymology of our curses might make you wince (at some points you might want to check to see if anyone is peeking over your shoulder), Mohr emphasises the human side of this history, citing bragging graffiti from Pompeii about sexual conquests, some ludicrous badges from pilgrimages of the 13th Century and even phallic building plans to examine why it is these words are now taboo – because they certainly weren’t to contemporaries of Chaucer or Aristotle. Her exploration of the demanding god Yahweh and his need to absorb the competing regional gods to gather more worshippers, which goes on to explain our dependence on swearing for testimonial purposes and in turn gave us our religious profanities, was especially enlightening, if you’ll forgive the pun.

Mohr’s writing is open, unapologetic and amicable and reads like a letter to a good friend that just happens to be quite passionate about swearing. Perhaps more time could have been spent exploring racial slurs – arguably among the most offensive words we know today but, overall, Holy Sh!t is a fucking brilliant book and has embellished my tendency to swear with a reverence for the rich history behind every damn, shit and fuck I’ll inevitably let loose the next time I drop my anthology of criticism on my foot.

Zoe Delahunty- Light

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