Book info

• Title Eats, Shoots and Leaves
• Author Lynne Truss
• Year 2003
• Genre Non-fiction

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!’

Thoughts

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read this book, it’s great. A passionate plea for the survival of punctuation whilst at the same time embracing the fact that language and prose is constantly changing and we’re better off not being elitist about it all.

It’s good to brush up on what the rules are for each of the various punctuation marks, and I’m not too proud to admit that I overuse the dash and don’t know enough about the semi-colon. It’s fascinating to find out how some of these conventions came about which help solidify the message that whilst punctuation usage is always evolving, there’s a good reason for some of it to remain.

Highly recommended for people who are keen on punctuation, and using it correctly, as it’s a great balance between pedantry and acceptance.

Rating: 4 / 5