Anal-retentive British author Lynne Truss will be on hand at the Beck Center in Lakewood this Friday to autograph copies of her new book, “Eats, Shoots & Leaves.”

Sticklers unite:
Best-selling British author
punctuates new book
By Charles Cassady
happenings
Published Nov. 17, 2004

Who? would ever think a British book about proper punctuation, of all things … would be an international bestseller!

Yet thats exactly the case with “Eats, Shoots & Leaves,” subtitled “The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,”  the slim volume of do;s and donts about where to put you’re apostophe’s, period’s. and comma’s, has become a sensation, first in the U.K in 2003, and then in the United States. Its made a regular catchphrase out of a battle cry for people who cant let a misprin’t or misuse of punctuation pass un-noticed or un-punished: “Sticklers Unite!”

Editor’s note: Bad punctuation intended.

This Friday night the sticklers will indeed unite, as the lady behind this publishing phenom — Lynne Truss —comes to the Beck Center in Lakewood for a special benefit on behalf of the Lakewood Public Library. She will speak and autograph copies of the book (provided for sale on site by Borders) from 7 to 9 p.m.

These yearly benefits for the Library just keep getting bigger and better. In November of 2003, best-selling thriller-author Stuart Woods similarly visited the Beck and brought out fans and readers from all over Cuyahoga County.

“The funding trustee, Suzanne Metelko, has been working with a lot of New York publishers for our annual fundraiser,” said Ken Warren, director of the LPL. “Last year’s event was such a success with Stuart Woods that the reputation of the Lakewood Public Library Foundation and the Lakewood community have caught the attention of the New York publishers. Mrs.Metelko was informed concerning the availability of a number of authors.”

Although Warren gentlemanly declines to name them, some of the writers offered up just didn’t have that certain je ne sais quoi.

“We decided to wait in the hope that a more exciting author might be able to visit Lakewood. When we found out that Lynne Truss was available we jumped!”

A resident of Brighton on the English Sea coast, Truss is an editor, journalist and former TV critic and book and Sports columnist for the London Times as well as a BBC radio commentator (which bespeaks well of her being able to hold an audience enraptured.)

In 2002 she did a series of radio broadcasts called “Cutting a Dash” that introduced listeners to such institutions as the Apostrophe Protection Society and the serious abuse of punctuation in everything from signs at grocery stores to the title of the Hugh Grant-Sandra Bullock comedy “Two Weeks Notice.”

The experience made Truss realize the sorry state of knowledge regarding punctuation and grammar (even in schools and especially on the internet).

In “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” she discourses on the invention of the semi-colon and touches on matters of language and usage from Chekhov to Shaw to Emily Dickinson to Martin Amis. She also gives amusing examples of messages whose entire meaning is altered by changing punctuation, using differently accentuated scriptural passages from the Bible as an example of just how much can hang by a comma (even salvation).

So popular is this book that it was even quoted on the floor of the British Parliament. Imagine “The DaVinci Code” getting that kind of reception.

Admission to “An Evening with Lynne Truss” is $35, and tickets can be purchased at the door at the Beck Center; at Borders in the Westlake Promenade shopping center, 30121 Detroit Road in Westlake; or during library hours at the circulation desks of either Lakewood Public Library branch — the main branch at 15425 Detroit Ave. or the Madison branch at 13229 Madison Ave.