Going Loco (28 page)
Authors: Lynne Truss
It was Abba.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Over 3 million copies sold worldwide
Anxious about the apostrophe? Confused by the comma? Or just plain stumped by the semi-colon?
Join Lynne Truss, self-confessed punctuation stickler, in this impassioned and hilarious tour through the rules of punctuation. A runaway bestseller, it is both a brilliantly clear guide for the punctuation challenged and enthralling entertainment for the grammar devotee.
‘A punctuation repair kit. Passionate and witty … fresh and funny’
Independent
‘Truss deserves to be piled high with honours’
JOHN HUMPHRYS,
Sunday Times
Talk to the Hand
The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life (or six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door)
This is not a book about manners, nor a book about etiquette. It is a book about rudeness.
Lynne Truss, bestselling author of
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
and champion of correct punctuation, returns to fight for the cause of politeness. A joyous rant against the everyday rudeness we’ve all become accustomed to,
Talk to the Hand
brilliantly dissects the incivilities of modern life. Why are other people so crass, selfish and inconsiderate? Whatever happened to ‘please’ and ‘thank you’? Why do we have to put up with so much swearing? And whatever happened to public-spiritedness?
‘A lively and witty broadside against the modern “eff off” society’
Sunday Express
‘Trademark Truss … (very) readable, (very) funny, (very) engaging’
Observer
Get Her Off the Pitch!
How Sport Took Over My Life
Get Her Off the Pitch!
is the story of one woman’s foray into the very masculine and rather baffling world of sport. Lynne Truss spent four years as an unlikely sports writer for
The Times.
It was a job that took her around the world (via the most difficult journeys and least glamorous hotels) and introduced her to some of the greatest living sportsmen (and many argumentative men with clipboards).
It is a hilarious, perceptive and at times moving account of those four strange years. It is perfect for those for whom sport is a matter of life and death, for those who have no idea what all the fuss is about – and for everyone in between.
‘Who will want to read this book? Just people like me who are largely indifferent to sport but enjoy literate, amusing, properly punctuated writing about anything’
Daily Mail
‘She can write comedy for Britain’
The Times
Making the Cat Laugh
One Woman’s Journal of Single Life on the Margins
A brilliant collection of Lynne Truss’ journalism – recording the life of a metropolitan refugee from coupledom.
For seven years Lynne Truss, in columns for
The Listener, The Times
and
Woman’s Journal,
tried to make her cat laugh. Along the way, ‘Margins’, ‘Single Life’ and ‘One Woman’s Journal’ collected a band of devoted fans, yet the cat remained unimpressed. But, under headings such as ‘The Single Woman Considers Going Out but Doesn’t Fancy the Hassle’ and ‘The Single Woman Stays at Home and Goes Quietly Mad’, we discover a writer not only obsessed with cats, but prone to over-reacting generally – to news stories, shopping, passive smoking, Christmas, coupledom, boyfriends, snails, sheds, Andre Agassi, cooking instructions, requests of ‘How’s the novel going?’ and personal remarks of any kind.
‘A small masterpiece of comedy … A continual hoot’
The Times
‘Trenchant writing, invigorating valour, and a shrewdly observant wit’
Scotland on Sunday
With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed
Osborne Lonsdale, a mysteriously attractive, down-at-heel journalist, writes a regular celebrity interview for
Come Into the Garden,
an ailing horticultural weekly magazine. This week his ‘Me and My Shed’ column will be based on the charming garden outhouse owned by TV sitcom star Angela Farmer. But unbeknown to Osborne, driving down to Devon to interview Angela, the sleepy magazine has been taken over by new management and his research trip will be interrupted by a trainload of anxious hacks from London – Lillian the fluffy blonde secretary, Michelle the sub-editor who has a secret crush on Osborne, and Trent Carmichael, crime novelist and bestselling author of
S is for … Secateurs!
‘A perfect comic novel … a witty, ingenious romp’
Daily Telegraph
‘Hilarious … as witty as a knot garden … I loved it’
The Times
‘A perennial comic delight … this Truss must never be stopped’
SUE LIMB
Tennyson’s Gift
It is July 1864 and the Isle of Wight is buzzing with eccentric creative types. A morose Alfred Tennyson, is reciting
Maud
to empty sofas, whilst photographer Julia Margaret Cameron whitewashes roses and tries to capture Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) in heroic poses. Into this cauldron of unrequited love and egotism step an acclaimed painter, his sixteen-year-old wife and a father-and-daughter team of phrenologists.
Unexpectedly moving and written with a mischievous sense of humour,
Tennyson’s Gift
is a triumphantly funny foray into love, literature, eccentricity and beards.
‘Enormously entertaining, a delicious confection’
Sunday Telegraph
‘A rollicking read. It is mischievous, light-hearted and fun’
Literary Review
‘Terrific … witty, surprising … and hugely assured’
Sunday Times
LYNNE TRUSS
is one of Britain’s best-loved comic writers and is the author of the worldwide bestsellers
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
and
Talk to the Hand.
Her most recent book is
Get Her Off the Pitch!
She reviews for the
Sunday Times
and writes regularly for radio.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
From the reviews of
Going Loco
:
‘A classic comic novel, unashamed, exuberant, fiendishly clever and a joy to read. The novel is suggestively satirical, too; the fun Truss pokes at journalists is reminiscent of
Scoop. Going Loco
is ingeniously constructed and packed with genuinely funny moments proving without doubt that there is an art to writing a first-class comic novel’
Daily Telegraph
‘Sings with glittering prose. Delicious’
Time Out
‘A complex plot, chock-full of “characters”, slapstick and mystery … achieves laughs through real inventiveness’
The Times
‘Subtle and imaginative. Excellent … her comic timing is finely tuned’
Sunday Express
With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed
Making the Cat Laugh: One Woman’s Journal of Single Life on
the Margins
Tennyson’s Gift
Going Loco
Tennyson and His Circle
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to
Punctuation
Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of Everyday Life
(or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door)
A Certain Age: Twelve Monologues from the Classic Radio Series
Get Her Off the Pitch: How Sport Took Over My Life
FOR CHILDREN
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a
Difference
The Girl’s Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can’t Manage Without
Apostrophes!
Twenty-Odd Ducks: Why, Every Punctuation Mark Counts!
Fourth Estate
An imprint of HarperCollins
Publishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road
Hammersmith
London W6 8JB
Visit our authors’ blog at www.fifthestate.co.uk
Love this book? www.bookarmy.com
This Fourth Estate paperback edition published 2010
1
Published in paperback by Profile Books, 2004
First published in Great Britain by Headline Book Publishing in 1999
Copyright © Lynne Truss 1999, 2004
Lynne Truss asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-00-735526-6
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Epub Edition © MARCH 2011 ISBN: 978-0-007-43754-2
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