Best Selling Books by Lynne Truss

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.

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.

Laugh your way to punctuation perfection with this pocket-sized paperback compendium of the hilariously illustrated #1 New York Times bestselling series. Clever side-by-side illustrations show how punctuation placement makes a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. Imagine this without the middle period and the comma: “The king walked and talked. A half hour after, his head was cut off.” Oh no—a beheaded king that can still walk and talk! You might want to eat a huge hot dog, but a huge, hot dog would run away pretty quickly if you tried to take a bite out of him. Scenes from all three of Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons’s best-selling punctuation picture books (Eats, Shoots & Leaves, The Girl''s Like Spaghetti, and Twenty-Odd Ducks) highlight the important jobs of commas, apostrophes, hyphens, quotation marks, and more in this humorous punctuation primer. “Wordplay or ‘grammarplay’ at its finest.” —School Library Journal

A comanion to the New York Times #1 best-seller Eats, Shoots & Leaves, this is punctuation play at its finest! Just as the use of commas was hilariously demystified in Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!, now Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons put their talents together to do the same for apostrophes. Everyone needs to know where to put an apostrophe to make a word plural or possessive (Are those sticky things your brother''s or your brothers?) and leaving one out of a contraction can give someone the completely wrong impression (Were here to help you). Full of silly scenes that show how apostrophes make a difference, too, this is another picture book that will elicit bales of laughter and better punctuation from all who read it. A New York Times Bestseller Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Winner

Language play iincludes many punctuation marks in this companion to the New York Times #1 bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves! Commas and apostrophes aren''t the only punctuation marks that can cause big trouble if they''re put in the wrong place. “Twenty-odd ducks” is an estimate of how many are waddling by, but “twenty odd ducks” would not only be a big group, but they’d look very strange! Imagine this without the middle period and the comma: “The king walked and talked. A half hour after, his head was cut off.” Oh no—a beheaded king that can still walk and talk! Truss and Timmons put hyphens, parentheses, quotation marks, periods, and more in the spotlight, with silly scenes showing how which marks you choose and where you put them can cause hilarious mix-ups.

Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) is back with a mesmerizing and hilarious tale of cats and murder For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him. It takes a while for Alec to realize he’s not gone mad from grief, that the cat is actually speaking to Wiggy . . . and that much of what we fear about cats is true. They do think they’re smarter than humans, for one thing. And, well, it seems they are! What’s more, they do have nine lives. Or at least this one does – Roger’s older than Methuselah, and his unblinking stare comes from the fact that he’s seen it all. And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths. But will the cat help Alec, or is he one of the dark forces? In the deft and comedic hands of mega-bestseller Lynne Truss, the story is as entertaining as it is addictive” (The Sunday Telegraph) – an increasingly suspenseful and often hysterically funny adventure that will please cat lovers and haters alike. And afterwards, as one critic noted, “You may never look at a cat in quite the same way again” (The Daily Mail).

A charming second comic crime novel from New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss. 1957: In the beach town of Brighton, music is playing and guests are sunning themselves, when a young man is found dead, dripping blood, in a deck chair. Constable Twitten of the Brighton Police Force has a hunch that the fiendish murder may be connected to a notorious nightspot, but his captain and his colleagues are-as ever-busy with other more important issues. Inspector Steine is being conned into paying for the honor of being featured at the Museum of Wax, and Sergeant Brunswick is trying (and failing) to get the attention of the distraught Brighton Belles who found the body. As the case twists and turns, Constable Twitten must find the murderer and convince his colleagues that there''s an evil mastermind behind Brighton''s climbing crime rate. Our incomparable team of detectives are back for another outing in the second installment of Lynne Truss''s joyfully quirky crime series.

The quirky and charming third crime novel from New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss. In the wake of two extremely high-profile murder cases, and with the summer of 1957 finally winding down, Constable Twitten is eagerly anticipating a quiet spell at work. But his hoped-for rest is interrupted when he and his colleagues find a trio of bodies, all murdered with the same unusual weapon: a milk bottle. The three victims are seemingly unconnected-a hardworking patrolman, a would-be beauty queen, and a catty BBC radio personality-so Constable Twitten, Sergeant Brunswick, and Inspector Steine are baffled. But with Brighton on high alert and the local newspaper churning out stories of a killer on the loose, the police trio is determined to solve the case and catch the killer. Charming, witty, and full of the joyfully zany characters Truss''s readers have come to love, Murder by Milk Bottle will delight old fans and new alike.

*THE BRAND NEW MURDER MYSTERY FOR FANS OF RICHARD OSMAN* ''Another delectable crime story... While between the covers of her books, the world seems a better place'' The Times ''A giddy spell of sheer delight!'' Praise for the Constable Twitten Series, Daily Mail In the latest installment of this prize-winning crime mystery series, our trio of redoubtable detectives are faced with the arrival in town of an escaped convict... It''s September in Brighton and the town is playing host to weeks of endless rain and lashings of villainy. A trusted member of a local gang has disappeared part way through planning a huge heist; a violent criminal obsessed with hunting policemen has escaped Broadmoor and is rumoured to be headed towards the town, while at Gosling''s department store an American researcher has been found dead in the music section. Inspector Steine has other things on his mind as he typically bathes in unearned glory, but Sergeant Brunswick and Constable ''Clever Clogs'' Twitten are both on the case. If only they could work out just who is behind these dastardly acts... ''Glorious... The fun is in Truss''s keen ear for dialogue, original comic characters and affectionate recreation of a seaside resort'' Praise for the Constable Twitten Series, Sunday Times Crime Club ''Outstanding. In her ability to blend crime and farce, Truss is in a class of her own'' Publishers Weekly DISCOVER THE AWARD-WINNING CONSTABLE TWITTEN MYSTERY SERIES NOW

Lynne Truss debuted in America as a guffaw-inducing grammarian, but her British audience has known her for years as a critically acclaimed novelist and columnist. Her previous works are now available stateside in one volume, complete with a new preface. With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed, a raucous comedy of errors, follows the exploits of Osborne Lonsdale, who writes a weekly column called "Me and My Shed" for a floundering gardening magazine. When the publication is taken over by a gung-ho management team, Lonsdale must learn to cope with his new coworkers. In Tennyson''s Gift and Going Loco, Truss turns a fiendishly clever eye to the literary world. Tennyson''s Gift is an imaginative cocktail of Victorian seriousness and farce that re-imagines the world of the nineteenth-century English poet laureate, placing him in the midst of eccentric company that includes dodgy Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). Going Loco features a critic trying to write a definitive account of the doppelgänger in gothic fiction, amidst the chaos of her domestic life, including paranoia that her cleaning lady is taking over her life. Making the Cat Laugh is a riotous collection of columns about single life. Truss comments on dating, secondhand smoking, shopping, holidays, and people who ask, "How''s the novel going?" All the while, she continues an eighteen-year quest to make her cat laugh. Reportedly, the feline remains unimpressed. A feast of wit, The Lynne Truss Treasury will delight fans of Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Lynne Truss''s first novel, in which she shows herself to be one of the very best comic writers.

A wonderful comic novel from the bestselling author of ‘Eats Shoots & Leaves’.

SPECIAL PRICE FOR A LIMITED TIME One woman''s journal of single life on the margins. A brilliant collection of Lynne Truss’ journalism – recording the life of a metropolitan refugee from coupledom. The alternative ‘Bridget Jones’.

''A Certain Age'' focuses on six women, each around 40 years of age, each defined by a family relationship, a mother, a daughter, and so on. These monologues are in the vein of Bridget Jones plus ten years

The punctuation workout for sticklers and rookies alike.

The first three charming, witty, and joyfully quirky novels in New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss''s Constable Twitten Mysteries. A Shot in the Dark: In 1957, Inspector Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman in the seaside British town of Brighton. As far as he''s concerned, the town has no criminals, which means no crime, and no stress. But much to Steine''s irritation, there''s a new constable in town?the keen and clever Constable Twitten, who sees patterns in small, meaningless burglaries and insists on the strange notion that perhaps all the crime has not been cleared out quite as effectively as Steine thinks. Worse yet, some of Constable Twitten''s ideas could be correct: when renowned theater critic A. S. Crystal arrives in Brighton to tell the detective the secret he knows about the still-unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up Case of 1945, he''s shot dead in his seat. The Man That Got Away: Just weeks after the startling events of A Shot In the Dark, in the beach town of Brighton, music is playing and guests are sunning themselves, when a young man is found dead, dripping blood, in a deck chair. Constable Twitten of the Brighton Police Force has a hunch that the fiendish murder may be connected to a notorious nightspot, but his captain and his colleagues are?as ever?busy with other more important issues. Inspector Steine is being conned into paying for the honor of being featured at the Museum of Wax, and Sergeant Brunswick is trying (and failing) to get the attention of the distraught Brighton Belles who found the body. As the case twists and turns, Constable Twitten must find the murderer and convince his colleagues that there''s an evil mastermind behind Brighton''s climbing crime rate. Murder by Milk Bottle In the wake of two extremely high-profile murder cases, and with the summer of 1957 finally winding down, Constable Twitten is eagerly anticipating a quiet spell at work. But his hoped-for rest is interrupted when he and his colleagues find a trio of bodies, all murdered with the same unusual weapon: a milk bottle. The three victims are seemingly unconnected-a hardworking patrolman, a would-be beauty queen, and a catty BBC radio personality-so Constable Twitten, Sergeant Brunswick, and Inspector Steine are baffled. But with Brighton on high alert and the local newspaper churning out stories of a killer on the loose, the police trio is determined to solve the case and catch the killer.

From the bestselling author of ‘Eats Shoots & Leaves’, an unexpectedly moving, luminously wise and brilliantly funny novel about a Victorian Poet Laureate.

The charming first novel in a new comic crime series from New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss. It''s 1957, and Inspector Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman in the seaside British town of Brighton. As far as he''s concerned, the town has no criminals, which means no crime, and no stress. But much to Steine''s irritation, there''s a new constable in town-the keen and clever Constable Twitten, who sees patterns in small, meaningless burglaries and insists on the strange notion that perhaps all the crime has not been cleared out quite as effectively as Steine thinks. Worse yet, some of Constable Twitten''s ideas could be correct: when renowned theater critic A. S. Crystal arrives in Brighton to tell the detective the secret he knows about the still-unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up Case of 1945, he''s shot dead in his seat. With a new murder, a new constable, and a new lead on the decades-old mystery, the Brighton Police Force must scramble to solve this delightfully droll mystery in “the funniest crime novel of 2018” (Wall Street Journal).

Drawing on the gallery''s collection of portraits in all media, this text provides an introduction to Alfred Lord Tennyson and his circle. This text is part of the Character Sketches series, providing an historical guide to literary and artistic groups of the past.

An evaluation of the way discourteous behavior has become commonplace and even applauded in today''s society is a humorous call to arms that challenges ill manners and the practices that support them.

The new novel from the bestselling author of THE SIXTH WIFE.

This word-lover and wordsmith''s calendar is based on the punctuation sensationEats, Shoots and Leavesthat hit #1 on best-seller lists and has sold more than 3 million hardcover copies worldwide. With such observations as "people truly do not know their apostrophe from their elbow," Lynne Truss has made "the history of punctuation a subject at once urgent, sexy, and hilarious" (John Walsh,The Independent).

In 2003, Lynne Truss followed up her popular BBC radio show "Cutting a Dash" with the punctuation sensation Eats, Shoots & Leaves. A former editor, Lynne Truss dares to say that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the necessary things they are. The book hit number one on the bestseller lists, prompting such extraordinary headlines as "Grammar Book Tops Bestseller List." With more than 3 million hardcover copies sold worldwide to date, Lynne Truss has made "the history of punctuation a subject at once urgent, sexy, and hilarious" (John Walsh, The Independent). Lynne Truss will be receiving renewed publicity with the release of her newest book: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. Features new illustrations.

By the bestselling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Cat Out of Hell, a nail-biting tale of good versus evil involving one man, his dog and a group of 18th-century amateur scientific pioneers who just happen to be cats. When you are an inoffensive retired librarian with bitter personal experience of Evil Talking Cats, do you rescue a kitten from the cold on a December night? Do you follow up news items about cats digging in graveyards? Do you inquire into long-ago cats who voyaged around the world with Captain Cook? Well, yes. If you are Alec Charlesworth that is precisely what you do - with unexpected and terrifying consequences ...

A New York Times Bestselling AuthorThe bestselling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves turns a fiendishly clever eye to the literary world. Tennyson''s Gift is an imaginative cocktail of Victorian seriousness and farce that re-imagines the world of the nineteenth-century English poet laureate, placing him in the midst of eccentric company that includes dodgy Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll).

AT LONG LAST, A WORTHY TRIBUTE TO PUNCTUATION''S STEPCHILDREN: THE NEGLECTED SEMICOLON, THE ENIGMATIC ELLIPSIS AND THE MAD DASH.

Où sont passés les " s''il vous plaît " et les " merci " ? Comment se fait-il que nous ayons tous en permanence l''insulte à la bouche ? Pourquoi se comporte-t-on en public comme chez soi ? Pourquoi est-ce désormais au client de faire tout le boulot ? Comment délimiter son espace vital ? Avec humour et autodérision, Lynne Truss dénonce la grossièreté du monde d''aujourd''hui, le manque de respect généralisé, et parle du sentiment de révolte qui nous anime chaque fois que nous découvrons que les autres sont sans-gêne, égoïstes et mal élevés. Un livre salutaire, qui montre que le respect de l''autre et de l''environnement ne se résume pas à quelques formules apprises par cœur.