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  PUNCTUATION - THE ENDANGERED SYSTEM

  This book has great pieces of humour running through its pages and yet there is always a serious aim shining through, explaining why it has become a runaway bestseller overnight.

  As Lynne Truss has explained, there are many people who have little idea of the basics of punctuation and she helps us by explaining the rules.

  This does not surprise me in the slightest. As an examiner and tutor, I have found scant regard paid to full stops, commas and question marks, and it is not just the learners who pay scant regard to punctuation.

  However, by far the number one serial offender is the missing apostrophe. The story of the Panda who eats in a restaurant, then shoots the restaurant up and departs is an amusing story with an important message. The placing of punctuation in the wrong place can completely alter the message being conveyed…at some cost.

  REVOLUTION IN PUNCTUATION

  The book is dedicated to the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers in 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.

  We have come a long way in nearly 100 years and the main casualty has been the written word. The ‘shorthand’ I have encountered in the last six years using the Internet is enough to convince me that this book should be compulsory reading in schools. Besides, it is a good read and very funny in places. To sell 50,000 copies in just over a week on release is a great achievement for any title.

  LEARNED OPINIONS

  It is true to say that the book makes a powerful case for the preservation of the system of what is interestingly described as ‘printing conventions’. However, this is not a book for pedants but for everyone, including members of the Bar who write lengthy Opinions.

  It has never surprised me how cross the Judiciary become when they see sloppy legal paperwork. I expect it from solicitors but we must maintain a very high standard at the Bar, even with the infernal Internet and toxic text messages.

  Well done, Ms Truss for reminding us of our legal roots… ‘sticklers unite’ she says, ‘you have nothing to lose but your sense of proportion – and arguably you didn’t have much of that to begin with’.

  Do look at the end of the book for a fine bibliography – all the usual suspects are there including one B Bryson and ‘Troublesome Words’, and the excellent Philip Howard’s ‘The State of the Language: English observed.’

  PHILLIP TAYLOR MBE. Richmond Green Chambers

  Review by Phillip Taylor on 13:31, 24 Aug 2008

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