 | This is a book for those who take their punctuation seriously : and I do mean seriously! "Punctuation really does matter, even if it is only occasionally a matter of life or death." So says the author!
Who, after all, would want to get shot by a panda? -- and if you don't get the panda joke* after which this book is titled, then this book ... and the art of writing ... is not for you.
While it is always nice to learn, when visiting a garden centre, that "Pansy's ready" (is she?), none of us, after all, would want to be 'hanged by a comma' as was Sir Roger Casement -- nor hanged by a 'yob's comma' as were the British Government.
This book is for sticklers who know that the English language both demands and rewards precision; for those who spend their evenings outside a Leicester Square theatre holding up an apostrophe sign over the film title Two Weeks Notice; or who, like Peter Cook, read Nevil Shute's three dots and come over "all funny."
And it is especially for those who don't know why Uncle Linz will smile with approval at that last sentence, and who would want that smile to be exercised approvingly over their own SOLO-article submission. If you fall into this category (and it's oh so easy to trip!) then get this book. It is, as its sub-title affirms, "The Zero Tolerance Guide to Punctuation."
* Herewith, the panda joke:
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats its, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes his way towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Just be thankful it wasn't a kiwi!
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Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
