Eats, shoots and leaves

Grammar sells! A new book on punctuation has climbed to the top of the best-seller list in the U.K. and will soon be published in the U.S. Its success comes as a complete surprise to the author and to her publisher, as well. When people have commented to Lynne Truss, the book’s author, “this must be every author’s dream,” she always says, “No. Nobody older than 12 dreams of this sort of thing, because it actually doesn’t happen.” The book, a first to be devoted solely to punctuation, sold over half a million copies during the last four months of 2003.

Asked what might explain the popularity of a book on punctuation, Ms. Truss says she can only speculate, but is willing to share her best guess: “I think it’s because sticklers are very, very fed up with the state of punctuation (and grammar) in this educationally benighted country; because clever young people are keen to learn something they were never taught; because it is a wonderful thing to make it a subject for general debate; and because people think the book is about pandas and are too embarrassed to take it back when they realize their mistake.” The book is currently number one on the Sunday Times (UK) bestseller list, having been on the list for 16 weeks.

The title is taken from the joke about a panda who goes into a restaurant, orders breakfast, eats it and when the bill is brought to the panda’s table, the panda stands up, shoots the waiter and walks out of the restaurant. When asked what just happened, a by-stander explains, “it was a panda – you know: eats, shoots, and leaves.”