Lynne Truss
Encyclopedia
Lynne Truss is an English writer and journalist
, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
.
and was educated at Tiffin Girls’ Grammar School
in Kingston. She gained a first-class honours degree at University College London
in English Language and Literature.
as a sub-editor before moving in 1978 to the Times Higher Education Supplement as the deputy literary editor. She began freelance writing at the same time. Truss was Literary Editor of The Listener (1986–90) and was an arts and books reviewer for The Independent on Sunday
before joining The Times
in 1991, where first she spent six years writing television criticism, illustrated by John Minnion
, followed by four years as a sports columnist. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Woman's Journal. She now reviews books for The Sunday Times
. Her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves
(November 2003), about the misuse of punctuation, became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States. The book's declaration for a "Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" is considered a rallying call for punctuation "sticklers" of the world. In 2005 she released a book on rudeness titled Talk to the Hand: the utter bloody rudeness of the world today (or six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door).
She is the author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, including the Radio 4 comedy series Acropolis Now
, and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4
series about punctuation and frequently delivered humorous monologues in the Fourth Column series. Her 2002/5 radio monologues for actors A Certain Age were collected for publication as a book in 2007. Also in 2007 Radio 4 broadcast her comic drama series Inspector Steine
about an incompetent police officer in 1950s Brighton
. This was followed by The Casebook of Inspector Steine
in 2008. Her latest book is "Get Her Off the Pitch!": how sport took over my life about her work as a sports reporter. This was serialised as a Book of the Week
on Radio 4 during the week of 5 October 2009. She has recently appeared as a team captain on the BBC Radio Four comedy series The Write Stuff
, on 27 January 2010.
series about punctuation, hosted by Lynne Truss. It was the direct inspiration for Truss's bestselling book Eats, Shoots & Leaves
.
It was a series of five fifteen-minute programmes, first broadcast in 2002:
The series was re-broadcast on BBC 7
, 8–12 January 2007, and again on 17–21 May 2010.
Trust on the Isle of Wight and the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. She is also patron of the Asham Trust in East Sussex and the Women's Refuge Project in Brighton.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, best known for her popular book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and...
.
Early life
Lynne Truss grew up in PetershamPetersham
Petersham is a place in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on the east of the bend in the River Thames south of Richmond, which it shares with neighbouring Ham. It provides the foreground of the scenic view from Richmond Hill across Petersham Meadows, with Ham House further along the River...
and was educated at Tiffin Girls’ Grammar School
Tiffin Girls' School
The Tiffin Girls' School is an all girls grammar school located in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. The school lies in over nine acres on the east side of Richmond Road.-History:...
in Kingston. She gained a first-class honours degree at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
in English Language and Literature.
Work
After university in 1977, she joined the Radio TimesRadio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
as a sub-editor before moving in 1978 to the Times Higher Education Supplement as the deputy literary editor. She began freelance writing at the same time. Truss was Literary Editor of The Listener (1986–90) and was an arts and books reviewer for The Independent on Sunday
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
before joining The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
in 1991, where first she spent six years writing television criticism, illustrated by John Minnion
John Minnion
John Minnion is an English illustrator.His distinctive black and white drawings have appeared in publications such as the Financial Times, The Guardian, and The Times, where for six years he illustrated the television criticism column written by Lynne Truss, author of the surprise best-seller...
, followed by four years as a sports columnist. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Woman's Journal. She now reviews books for The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
. Her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and...
(November 2003), about the misuse of punctuation, became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States. The book's declaration for a "Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" is considered a rallying call for punctuation "sticklers" of the world. In 2005 she released a book on rudeness titled Talk to the Hand: the utter bloody rudeness of the world today (or six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door).
She is the author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, including the Radio 4 comedy series Acropolis Now
Acropolis Now (radio)
Acropolis Now is a BBC Radio sitcom set in Ancient Greece, written by the author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in two series in 2000 and 2002, with subsequent reruns on BBC 7 in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010....
, and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
series about punctuation and frequently delivered humorous monologues in the Fourth Column series. Her 2002/5 radio monologues for actors A Certain Age were collected for publication as a book in 2007. Also in 2007 Radio 4 broadcast her comic drama series Inspector Steine
Inspector Steine
Inspector Steine is a radio comedy drama series written by Lynne Truss and produced by Sweet Talk for BBC Radio 4. The producer is Karen Rose and music is by Anthony May....
about an incompetent police officer in 1950s Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. This was followed by The Casebook of Inspector Steine
Inspector Steine
Inspector Steine is a radio comedy drama series written by Lynne Truss and produced by Sweet Talk for BBC Radio 4. The producer is Karen Rose and music is by Anthony May....
in 2008. Her latest book is "Get Her Off the Pitch!": how sport took over my life about her work as a sports reporter. This was serialised as a Book of the Week
Book of the Week
Book of the Week is a BBC Radio 4 series broadcast daily on week days. Each week the selected book, always a non-fiction work, is read in five episodes; each fifteen-minute episode is broadcast in the morning and repeated overnight . The Act of Worship replaces the morning broadcast on...
on Radio 4 during the week of 5 October 2009. She has recently appeared as a team captain on the BBC Radio Four comedy series The Write Stuff
The Write Stuff
The Write Stuff is a lighthearted quiz about literature on BBC Radio 4, taking a humorous look at famous literary figures, chaired by James Walton and with the two teams being headed by Sebastian Faulks and John Walsh, and Beth Chalmers reading the extracts.Each week, the programme has an "Author...
, on 27 January 2010.
Cutting a Dash
Cutting a Dash was a popular BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
series about punctuation, hosted by Lynne Truss. It was the direct inspiration for Truss's bestselling book Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and...
.
It was a series of five fifteen-minute programmes, first broadcast in 2002:
- The Endangered Apostrophe: Is a misplaced apostrophe a catastrophe?
- Changing Gear, the Comma: "A little boomerang", the Ancient Greeks, legalese and the National Curriculum come under scrutiny.
- And Another Thing: Colons and Semicolons. George Bernard Shaw, Sir Compton Mackenzie and Fay Weldon debate the "limb" of punctuation.
- Listen to Me When I'm Writing: Jane Austen, inverted commas, and a man haunted by an exclamation mark.
- Punctuating the Future: Are the internet and e-mail influencing how we punctuate?
The series was re-broadcast on BBC 7
BBC 7
BBC Radio 4 Extra, formerly known as BBC 7 and BBC Radio 7, is a British digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and children's programming nationally 24 hours a day. It is the principal broadcasting outlet for the BBC's archive of spoken-word entertainment...
, 8–12 January 2007, and again on 17–21 May 2010.
Other activities
Truss is on the boards of Charleston Trust in East Sussex, the Julia Margaret CameronJulia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary themes....
Trust on the Isle of Wight and the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation. She is also patron of the Asham Trust in East Sussex and the Women's Refuge Project in Brighton.
Fiction
- With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed – Hamish Hamilton (1994) ISBN 0-241-13510-2; Penguin (1995) ISBN 0-14-017938-0; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-749-2
- Tennyson's Gift – Hamish Hamilton (1996) ISBN 0-241-13521-4; Penguin (1997) ISBN 0-14-024671-1; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-733-6
- Going LocoGoing LocoGoing Loco is a farcical comic novel by the author Lynn Truss. It focuses on the life of Belinda, a writer who is obsessed with the idea of doubles or doppelgangers in fiction, unaware that real life doubles of one sort or another are surrounding her day to day life....
– Review (Hodder Headline) (1999) ISBN 0-7472-5965-8; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-733-6 - A Certain Age (BBC Audio Collection, 2 vols) – BBC Audiobooks (2005, 2007) ISBN 0-563-51052-8, 1-4056-7687-6
- A Certain Age: twelve monologues from the classic radio series – Profile Books (2007) ISBN 1-86197-879-0
Non-fiction
- Making the Cat Laugh – Hamish Hamilton (1995) ISBN 0-241-13542-7; Penguin (1996) ISBN 0-14-026300-4; Profile Books (2004) ISBN 1-86197-754-9
- Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to PunctuationEats, Shoots & LeavesEats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC Radio 4's Cutting a Dash programme. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and...
– Profile Books (2003) ISBN 1-86197-612-7 - Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life (or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door) – Profile Books (2005) ISBN 1-86197-933-9
- The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage Without Apostrophes!, illustrated by Bonnie Timmons – Profile Books (2007) ISBN 1-86197-168-0
- Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, Every Punctuation Mark Counts!, Putnam Publishing Group (2008) ISBN 0399250581
- Get Her Off the Pitch!: How Sport Took Over My Life, Fourth Estate Ltd (2009) ISBN 0-00730-574-5