Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
31 used & new from £2.19
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (Paperback)

by Lynne Truss (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.79 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £3.20 (40%)
Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

20 new from £2.97 11 used from £2.19
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £7.99 £7.19
Unknown Binding 5 used & new from £30.40

Frequently Bought Together

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation + My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English + I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff
Price For All Three: £18.63

Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff

I Before E (Except After C): Old-School Ways to Remember Stuff

by Judy Parkinson
4.2 out of 5 stars (12)  £6.99
Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation

Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation

by John Seely
4.4 out of 5 stars (5)  £4.99
My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

by Caroline Taggart
4.3 out of 5 stars (18)  £6.85
Eats, Shites & Leaves: Crap English and How to Use It

Eats, Shites & Leaves: Crap English and How to Use It

by Antal Parody
4.0 out of 5 stars (10)  £6.99
Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

by Lynne Truss
3.6 out of 5 stars (182)  £5.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Profile (5 Jul 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1846680352
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846680359
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2,493 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #4 in  Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauri > Usage Guides
    #6 in  Books > Humour > Fiction
    #30 in  Books > Reference > Transport > Aviation

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review
"'If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I'd nominate her for sainthood' Frank McCourt 'This book will stimulate and satisfy. It's worth its weight in gold.' Independent 'She's a soul sister. She's one of us.' Richard Madeley, Richard and Judy 'Lynne Truss deserves to be piled high with honours' Sunday Times"

Product Description
The international bestseller - reissued and with a new introduction. A witty, entertaining, impassioned guide to perfect punctuation, for everyone who cares about precise writing. 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. 'If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I'd nominate her for sainthood' Frank McCourt 'This book will stimulate and satisfy. It's worth its weight in gold.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 'A witty, elegant and passionate book that should be on every writer's shelf' Observer 'Lynne Truss deserves to be piled high with honours ...' John Humphrys 'It can only be a matter of time before the new government seizes the chance to appoint her as minister for punctuation. The manifesto is already written.' Guardian 'She's a soul sister. She's one of us.' Richard Madeley, Richard and Judy

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)
See all 2 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
83% buy the item featured on this page:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation 4.2 out of 5 stars (12)
£4.79
Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
13% buy
Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation 3.6 out of 5 stars (182)
£5.99
My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English
2% buy
My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English 4.3 out of 5 stars (18)
£6.85
Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation
1% buy
Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation 4.4 out of 5 stars (5)
£4.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book for the pedant in your life!, 4 Jul 2007
By Mr. P. G. Smith "Bookworm Phil" (Southsea, Hants, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I highly recommend this book IF you have an interest in the english language, its punctuation, the development and abuse of said. This book is accessible, very funny, and well written. Lynne obviously cares about her subject and actually had a long-running national newspaper column on punctuation and its abuse.
If you are regularly infuriated by the greengrocer's apostrophe (carrot's, apple's, etc.) or wonder who invented the question mark (these things don't just turn up out of the blue, you know) then this is the book for you.
Buy it. Read it. Read it again. Bore everyone you know to tears with it. I did!
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Simply a wonderful book for learning punctuation, 2 April 2008
By Miseri57 (England) - See all my reviews
A gem of a book. I would recommend this book for just about anyone who's wanting to improve their punctuation, as well as those who feel they need to refresh or even re-learn the art of punctuation.

It's a great and easy read and can even be used as a decent reference.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way, 28 Jan 2008
By John A. Launders "JA" (Kent) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.

While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.

I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Mildly entertaining and mildly irritating
I find it quite interesting that somebody who writes a book which is supposed to serve as a punctuation guide can write something like "Sticklers unite! Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jacko

2.0 out of 5 stars Really rather dull, pedantic and irritating
I tried reading this a couple of years ago and threw it away in frustration after about 30 pages. I hate not finishing books so picked it up again recently. Read more
Published 4 months ago by N. Green

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid read!
This book has to be one of the most amazing books I've ever read. Lynne Truss makes punctuation sexy! Read more
Published 5 months ago by KH Rane

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be compulsory reading for every office worker!
I have for many years been what the author calls a "stickler", i.e. someone who exercises total pedantry where punctuation is concerned. Read more
Published 7 months ago by P. Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious Miniature
On the state of the nation's punctuation: this sounds like the kind of essay topic a prefect would award a wayward junior as punishment for some minor infringement ("500 words on... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Andy

4.0 out of 5 stars A joy to read
This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Brandon Simpson

5.0 out of 5 stars I now know I'm not alone...
By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Read more
Published 18 months ago by H. Dennison

5.0 out of 5 stars An island of hope in a wasteland of despair
The tragedy of this book is that it is read by people who care about punctuation but ignored by those who need it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by R. A. Hooker

3.0 out of 5 stars Needs an index.
My title says it all really. Quite a good read but a rubbish reference manual as it is nearly impossible to look things up in it.
Published 20 months ago by Kevin

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]

   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Health & Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

Elemis Resurface and Renew Skin Care Gift Set of 4 Products
From soap to shavers, massagers to mascara, stock up on your daily essentials or truly pamper yourself.

›Discover Health & Beauty

  

Let Olay Amaze You

Olay Total Effects Day Moisturiser SPF15 50ml
Amazon.co.uk sells all your favourite ranges from Olay, including Regenerist and Total Effects.

›Discover Olay at Amazon.co.uk

  

Up to 53% off Braun Series Shavers

Braun Series 3 390cc Clean & Renew System Rechargeable Foil Electric Shaver
Get in touch with your smooth side with Braun Series shavers, now with Gillette blade technology.

›Discover Braun Series at Amazon.co.uk

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates