Eats, Shoots and Leaves Lynne Truss Profile Books, 32pp, £8.99 ISBN 1861978162

Last weekend, a friend of mine had her drink spiked at a London club. Friends rallied around her, calling upon sketchy life-saving pointers while in communal confusion. Suddenly, a slurred but defiant declaration: "I won't. I won't. I WON'T go to hospital! W-O-N-APOSTROPHE -T!!" Relief all round: we knew she would be fine.

It seems that to be a stickler for punctuation and grammar distinguishes educated thinkers from the "other". While the original Eats, Shoots and Leaves might serve as a novelty Christmas gift for the parents, one has to feel sympathy for any kid given this children's version to clutch in the playground.

While I fully encourage the promotion of proper punctuation among our youth, may I draw to your attention the trifling blemishes found in Truss's bible? In the dedication, to be a pedant, there's a non-restrictive clause not preceded by a comma. Whoops.

This did little to dampen Truss's campaign, but am I alone in thinking that her "militant wing" of the "Apostrophe Protection Society" is a front for an empire of must-have items for the middle-class curmudgeon? I now live in fear of Truss-branded accessories for young and old who feel burdened by the responsibility of grammatical precision.

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