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Lynne Truss (born 1955) is an English writer and journalist who was born in Kingston upon Thames. She was educated at Tiffin Girls' School (1966-73)^[1] and is a graduate of University College London, where she read English. She is best known for her commercially successful book on punctuation, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

Truss was Literary Editor of the The Listener (1986-90) and briefly 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 Women'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 manners 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 regularly delivered humorous monologues on 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.

Cutting a Dash was a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation, hosted by Lynne Truss. It was the direct inspiration for Truss' bestselling book Eats, Shoots & Leaves. ^[2]

It was a series of five, fifteen-minute programmes, first broadcast in 2002:

1. The Endangered Apostrophe: Is a misplaced apostrophe a catastrophe?
2. Changing Gear, the Comma: "A little boomerang", the Ancient Greeks, legalese and the National Curriculum come under scrutiny.
3. And Another Thing: Colons and Semicolons. George Bernard Shaw, Sir Compton Mackenzie and Fay Weldon debate the "limb" of punctuation.
4. Listen to Me When I'm Writing: Jane Austen, inverted commas, and a man haunted by an exclamation mark.
5. Punctuating the Future: Are the internet and e-mail influencing how we punctuate?

The series was re-broadcast on BBC 7, 8th to 12th January, 2007.

• With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed (2004) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-749-2
• A Certain Age (BBC Audio Collection) (2004) BBC Audiobooks ISBN 0-563-51052-8
• Tennyson's Gift (2004) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-733-6
• Going Loco (2004) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-733-6
• Making the Cat Laugh (2004) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-754-9
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation (2005) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-677-1
• Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life (or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door) (2005) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-933-9
• A Certain Age: twelve monologues from the classic radio series (2007) Profile Books Ltd ISBN 1-86197-879-0

1. ^ "The Tiffin Girls' School Prize Giving Thursday 21st September 2006"
2. ^ Truss, Lynne (2003). Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Profile Books. ISBN 1 86197 612 7. 

• About Lynne Truss
• Official site
• Episode guide to the Radio Show "A Certain Age"