Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
AuthorLynne Truss
Cover artistJames Nunn
LanguageEnglish
SubjectEnglish grammar
PublisherProfile Books
Publication date
6 November 2003
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardcover)
Pages228 pp.
ISBN978-1-86197-612-3
OCLC55019487
428.2 22
LC ClassPE1450 .T75 2003

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of 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 describes how rules are being relaxed in today's society. Her goal is to remind readers of the importance of punctuation in the English language by mixing humour and instruction.

Truss dedicates the book "to the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers of St. Petersburg who, in 1905, demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters, and thereby directly precipitated the first Russian Revolution". She added this dedication as an afterthought after remembering the factoid when reading one of her radio plays.