Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Anxious about the apostrophe? Confused by the comma? Stumped by the semicolon? Join Lynne Truss on a hilarious tour through the rules of punctuation that is sure to sort the dashes from the hyphens. We all had the basic rules of punctuation drilled into us at school, but punctuation pedants have good reason to suspect they never sank in. ‘Its Summer!’ screams a sign that sets our teeth on edge. ‘Pansy’s ready’, we learn to our considerable interest (‘Is she?’) as we browse among the bedding plants. It is not only the rules of punctuation that have come under attack but also a sense of why they matter. In this runaway bestseller, Lynne Truss takes the fight to emoticons and greengrocers’ apostrophes with a war cry of ‘Sticklers unite!’

‘A punctuation repair kit. Passionate and witty…fresh and funny.’ Independent ‘If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I’d nominate her for sainthood.’ Frank McCourt ‘I laughed, I howled, and I immediately wanted to join the militant wing of the Apostrophe Society. This is great stuff: genuine, heartfelt and rousing.’ Jenny Colgan ‘Enchanting, full of jokes and anecdotes and information. It makes you love punctuation; you want to conserve what is left and perhaps call for more of it.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘It can only be a matter of time before the government seizes the chance to appoint [Truss] minister for punctuation. The manifesto is already written.’ Guardian ‘Truss deserves to be piled high with honours.’ John Humphrys, Sunday Times ‘Worth its weight in gold.’ Independent

Lynne Truss is one of Britain's best-loved comic writers and is the author of the worldwide bestsellers ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves’ and ‘Talk to the Hand’. Her most recent book is ‘Get Her Off the Pitch!’ She reviews for the Sunday Times and writes regularly for radio.