Eats, Shoots & Leaves

The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

by Lynne Truss

209 pages

English language

Published Jan. 6, 2003 by Profile Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-86197-612-3
OCLC Number:: 53999333

(12 reviews)

Everyone knows the basics of punctuation, surely? Aren't we all taught at school how to use full stops, commas and question marks? And yet we see ignorance and indifference everywhere. "Its Summer!" says a sign that cries out for an apostrophe, "ANTIQUE,S," says another, bizarrely. "Pansy's ready," we learn to our considerable interest ("Is she?"), as we browse among the bedding plants.

In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss dares to say that, with our system of punctuation patently endangered, it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them for the wonderful and necessary things they are. If there are only pendants left who care, then so be it. "Sticklers unite" is her rallying cry. "You have nothing to lose but your sense of proportion - and arguably you didn't have much of that to begin with."

This is the book for people who love punctuation …

This is the book for people who love punctuation and get upset about it. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to Sir Roger Casement "hanged on a comma"; from George Orwell shunning the semicolon to Peter Cook saying Nevile Shute's three dots made him feel "all funny", this book makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with. --front flap

17 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

A bit dull

3 stars

I didn't read Eats, Shoots and Leaves when it was first published although I do remember the incredible hype surrounding its release. Now, over a decade later, I am left wondering what all the fuss was about. As a grammar stickler myself I do often wince at real howlers, but to be fussy to the extent that Truss claims to be? Life is surely too short?

The most interesting passages are where the history of the various punctuation marks and their uses are described. The fluidity of the English language is always fascinating to me. On the whole, however, I found this book to be just a little dull.