LYNNE TRUSS

By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mesmerising tale of a cat with nine lives, and a relationship as ancient as time itself and just as powerful. The scene: a cottage on the coast on a windy evening. Inside, a room with curtains drawn. Tea has just been made. A kettle still steams. Under a pool of yellow light, two figures face each other across a kitchen table. A man and a cat. The story about to be related is so unusual yet so terrifyingly plausible that it demands to be told in a single sitting. The man clears his throat, and leans forward, expectant. 'Shall we begin?' says the cat...

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!'

The BBC Radio 4 series that inspired the bestselling book Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The runaway success of Eats, Shoots and Leaves brought millions of grammar geeks out of the closet and made it cool to care about punctuation. This is the radio series that started it all: five programmes in which Lynne Truss explores changing fashions in punctuation. She accompanies the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society through Berwick Street Market on a hunt for the ?greengrocer?s apostrophe?, enters the classroom to hear how children learn punctuation, and finds out whether anyone punctuates text messages. Talking to writers and experts like Fay Weldon and David Crystal, she discovers the origins of the comma in Greek drama and Gregorian chant, considers the case for ?semicolonic irrigation? and asks how a writer?s choice of punctuation expresses his tone of voice. Looking into the future, she wonders if ?emoticons? will put colons, commas and apostrophes on the endangered species list. Impassioned, informative and always amusing, this is an essential listen for anyone who loves language.

By acclaimed storyteller Lynne Truss, author of the bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the mesmerising tale of a cat with nine lives, and a relationship as ancient as time itself and just as powerful.The scene: a cottage on the coast on a windy evening. Inside, a room with curtains drawn. Tea has just been made. A kettle still steams.Under a pool of yellow light, two figures face each other across a kitchen table. A man and a cat.The story about to be related is so unusual yet so terrifyingly plausible that it demands to be told in a single sitting.The man clears his throat, and leans forward, expectant.''Shall we begin?'' says the cat ...

The stickler-tickling punctuation polemic is even more fun with the whimsical art of acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist Pat Byrnes The runaway bestseller that has everyone minding their p''s and q''s (and their commas and semicolons), Eats, Shoots & Leaves has delighted audiences around the world, sold more than 1.6 million copies in North America and elevated Lynne Truss to superstickler status among those in the know. Now the book is beautifully packaged with more than fifty vivid, full-color illustrations throughout by renowned cartoonist Pat Byrnes. Each illustration brings to life a different punctuation pitfall in a wickedly playful style that matches Truss''s trademark wit. We hope you''ll agree that it''s a chocolate-and- peanut-butter combination (even better than the sum of its parts). Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Illustrated Edition is also accompanied by a colorful foreword by wordsmith extraordinaire Frank McCourt.

Sticklers unite! The Queen of Zero Tolerance takes on the sorry state of modern manners, in the spirit of her three million copy worldwide bestseller, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves". 'Talk to the hand cause the face ain't listening', the saying goes. When did the world get to be so rude? When did society become so inconsiderate? It's a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says that it has now reached boiling point. Taking on the boorish behaviour that has become a point of pride for some, "Talk to the Hand" is a rallying cry for courtesy. Like "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", "Talk to the Hand" is a spirited conversation, not a stuffy guidebook. It is not about forks, for a start. Why hasn't your nephew ever thanked you for that perfect Christmas present? What makes your builder think he can treat you like dirt in your own home? When you phone a utility with a complaint (and have negotiated the switchboard), why can't you ever speak to a person who is authorised to apologise? What accounts for the appalling treatment you receive in shops? Most important, what will it take to roll back a culture that applauds rudeness and finds it so amusing? For anyone who's fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (and is naturally too scared to confront the actual yobs), "Talk to the Hand" is a colourful call to arms - from the wittiest defender of the civilised world.

When social histories come to be written of the first decade of the 21st century, people will note a turning point in 2003 when declining standards of punctuation were reversed. Linguists will record Lynne Truss as the saviour of the semi-colon and the avenging angel of the apostrophe.

Lynne Truss We all know the basics of punctuation--or do we? In "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," Truss dares to say, in her delightfully witty way, that it is time to institute a zero tolerance approach