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Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Monday, 02 February 2004

Those who know me will attest to the fact that I'm something of a stickler for correct punctuation, whilst reserving the right to make a complete hash of it occasionally myself. I despair when I see some of what passes for English nowadays e.g. a sign advertising “Recruitment At It's Best”. Therefore Eats, Shoots & Leaves a.k.a. The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, is right up my street.

This book is a tongue-in-cheek journey through the usage and history of punctuation, where amongst the protagonists are the comma, the apostrophe, the semi-colon and the exclamation mark. The introduction explains why correct punctuation is important in an Internet age that devalues it, and it encourages us punctuation vigilantes to stick to our guns. It teaches us that punctuation is a valuable tool that enriches communication. Thereafter, each chapter goes into detail about a single punctuation mark, although the later chapters deal with lesser used punctuation as a group. Examples of correct usage are given and the story is illustrated with anecdotes throughout. For example, did you know that the 2001 Booker Prize winner was a book that contained no commas at all?

Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a well-researched, educational but above all, entertaining book. It would seem that there are plenty who agree with me, for it tops the bestseller chart at the time of writing. Being a stickler, I had to deduct one mark from this review because the author consistently fails to capitalise the letter i in Internet, thus implying that there is more than one. 4/5.

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