Shady Characters

@shadychars
839 Followers
61 Following
506 Posts

Keith Houston's blog about unusual marks of punctuation. Author of SHADY CHARACTERS, THE BOOK, EMPIRE OF THE SUM and now FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY: A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMOJI (https://shadycharacters.co.uk/books/).

Personal account at https://mstdn.social/@orkneydullard.

Bloghttps://shadycharacters.co.uk
Twitterhttps://twitter.com/shadychars
Facebookhttps://facebook.com/shadychars
Instagramhttps://instagram.com/shadychars
Show threadShady Characters4d ago
And if you’re interested in my other books, go to https://www.audiobooks.co.uk/promotions/promotedBook/702851/ for a big discount on “Shady Characters”, or to https://www.audiobooks.co.uk/promotions/promotedBook/702802/ for “Empire of the Sum”.
Shady Characters4d ago
Audiobooks galore today! First, you can win one of four copies of the “Face with Tears of Joy” audiobook at https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2025/08/face-with-tears-of-joy-audiobook-giveaway/. (There’s nothing complicated to do - just leave a comment!)
Shady CharactersAug 3
Richard RutterAug 2
In the pub with a pale ale, my prize copy of ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ and the boy with a graphic novel. An oasis midst the hectic madness of Pride.
Shady CharactersAug 1
Quite exciting to appear on WGN Morning News today with Robin Baumgarten and Dan Ponce! 📺 Watch the piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoPnqg7hvUo.
'Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji'

YouTube
Shady CharactersAug 1
It's competition time again! Go to https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2025/08/face-with-tears-of-joy-audiobook-giveaway/ to win one of four copies of the audio version of “Face with Tears of Joy” - just leave a comment on that post and you're in with a chance to win.
Shady CharactersJul 30
Jeremy BurgeJul 30
Just finished reading the latest from @shadychars and give it my absolute recommendation as the definitive book on emoji history.

Don’t let the huge set of references and citations fool you, it’s an easy and interesting read. Goes deep where it needs to, without going off the deep end.

Worthwhile for anyone from the casually interested in emoji, to those well versed in Unicode. It’s got something for everyone 🙂‍↕️ https://shadycharacters.co.uk/books/face-with-tears-of-joy/
Shady CharactersJul 25
TimJul 25

@shadychars Just finished "Face with Tears of Joy" 😂 - most excellent! Really enjoyed it, thanks.

I'm always left with the impression that your books must be absolute hell to proofread, though! 😉

Shady CharactersJul 21
With “Face with Tears of Joy” (https://shadycharacters.co.uk/books/face-with-tears-of-joy/) now available to buy around the world, I took some time to revisit an older topic at shadycharacters.co.uk – through an emoji lens 🔍, of course! The question at hand: do emoji obey Zipf’s law? Read more here: https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2025/07/zipfs-emoji/.
Show threadShady CharactersJul 18
cc @emojipedia
Show threadShady CharactersJul 18
Two Keiths talking about emoji: what more could you want? How about a copy of my book? Well, you're in luck - Emojipedia are giving away three copies! Visit the same link (https://blog.emojipedia.org/major-moments-in-emoji-history-1995-to-2025/) to enter the competition.
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