By Lynne Truss
I was given this book on my 30th Birthday. As someone who struggled with reading, then writing as I grew up I've always had a fascination with the English language and how we all tend to get it wrong from time to time. I've enjoyed revisiting this book but seems to bring out the worst in me as a teacher; expecting my seven year-olds to know how to make accurate use of the oxford comma.This is great little book to share, especially with those friends of yours who may, like me, want to take a marker to the signs outside green grocers and petrol stations.
Synopsis
A panda walks into a cafė. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then he draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tossesit over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"
Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
So punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life and death.
This is the zero tolerance guide.
Author
Lynne Truss is a writer and
journalist who started out as a literary editor with a blue pencil and
then got sidetracked. The author of three novels and numerous radio
comedy dramas, she spent six years as the television critic of The Times
of London, followed by four (rather peculiar) years as a sports
columnist for the same newspaper. She won Columnist of the Year for her
work for Women's Journal. Lynne Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a
popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation. She now reviews books for
the Sunday Times of London and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. She
lives in Brighton, England. (GoodReads)
Books by the Author
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (2003)
Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door (2005)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really DO Make a Difference! (2006)
Cat Out of Hell (2014)
Other Works
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