Lynne Truss (born 31 May 1955) is an English author, journalist, novelist, and radio broadcaster and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Ben Jonson coined the term "playwri ...

. She champions correctness and aesthetics in the English language, which is the subject of her 2003 book, '' Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation''. The book was inspired by a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

show about punctuation, ''Cutting a Dash'', which she presented. Besides her promotion of

linguistic prescription Linguistic prescription is the establishment of rules defining publicly preferred Usage (language), usage of language, including rules of spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, etc. Linguistic prescriptivism may aim to establish a standard ...

and commentary on English grammar, Truss has written many radio plays, both comedic and

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

tic. She has also written grammar guides for children and novels, including crime fiction. She was inducted into the Detection Club in 2021.

Early life

Truss was born on 31 May 1955 in Kingston upon Thames. She was educated at the Tiffin Girls' School and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, where she was awarded a first-class degree in English Language and Literature.

Career

Truss began her media career as a literary editor. She then spent six years as a television critic for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', before moving into sports journalism for the same newspaper. She spent four years in the latter field and in 2009 wrote a book about her experiences with it, ''Get Her Off the Pitch: How Sport Took Over My Life''.

Politics

In August 2014, Truss was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

Works

Novels

* ''With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed'' – Hamish Hamilton (1994) ; Penguin (1995) ; Profile Books (2004) * ''Tennyson's Gift'' – Hamish Hamilton (1996) ; Penguin (1997) ; Profile Books (2004) * ''Going Loco'' – Review (Hodder Headline) (1999) ; Profile Books (2004) * ''Cat Out of Hell'' – Hammer (2014) * ''The Lunar Cats'' (2017) * ''A Shot in the Dark (A Constable Twitten Mystery)'' – Raven Books (2018) * ''The Man That Got Away: A Constable Twitten Mystery'' (2019) * ''Murder by Milk Bottle (A Constable Twitten Mystery)'' (2020) * ''Psycho by the Sea (A Constable Twitten Mystery)'' (2021)

Non-fiction

* ''Making the Cat Laugh: One Woman's Journal of Single Life on the Margins'' (1995) * ''Tennyson and his Circle'' (1999) * '' Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation'' (2003) * ''Glued to the Goggle Box: 50 Years of British TV with Freeze-Frames'' (2003) – with John Minnion * ''Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life'' (2005) * ''Get Her Off the Pitch: How Sport Took Over My Life'' (2009)

Children's books

* ''The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage Without Apostrophes!'' (2007) * ''Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, Every Punctuation Mark Counts'' (2008)

Collections and published scripts

* ''A Certain Age: Twelve Monologues From the Classic Radio Series'' – Profile Books (2007) * ''Giving Up the Ghost'' – BBC Radio 4 (2008)

Selected radio series

* '' Acropolis Now'' – set in

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

(2000–2002) * ''A Certain Age'' (BBC Audio Collection, two vols.) – BBC Audiobooks (2005, 2007) , * '' Inspector Steine'' – set in a 1950s English police station (2007–2013) * ''Gossip from the Garden Pond'' (2014) * ''Rumblings from the Rafters'' (2016) This list excludes standalone plays.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Truss, Lynne 1955 births Living people English journalists English non-fiction writers English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists English radio writers Women radio writers People from Kingston upon Thames Alumni of University College London Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Writers of style guides People educated at the Tiffin Girls' School Members of the Detection Club