New Releases by Lynne Truss

'Another delectable crime story... While between the covers of her books, the world seems a better place' The Times 'A giddy spell of sheer delight!' Praise for the Constable Twitten Series, Daily Mail In the latest installment of this prize-winning crime mystery series, our trio of redoubtable detectives are faced with the arrival in town of an escaped convict... It's September in Brighton and the town is playing host to weeks of endless rain and lashings of villainy. A trusted member of a local gang has disappeared part way through planning a huge heist; a violent criminal obsessed with hunting policemen has escaped Broadmoor and is rumoured to be headed towards the town, while at Gosling's department store an American researcher has been found dead in the music section. Inspector Steine has other things on his mind as he typically bathes in unearned glory, but Sergeant Brunswick and Constable 'Clever Clogs' Twitten are both on the case. If only they could work out just who is behind these dastardly acts... 'Glorious... The fun is in Truss's keen ear for dialogue, original comic characters and affectionate recreation of a seaside resort' Praise for the Constable Twitten Series, Sunday Times Crime Club 'Outstanding. In her ability to blend crime and farce, Truss is in a class of her own' Publishers Weekly DISCOVER THE AWARD-WINNING CONSTABLE TWITTEN MYSTERY SERIES NOW

Laugh your way to punctuation perfection with this pocket-sized paperback compendium of the hilariously illustrated #1 New York Times bestselling series. Clever side-by-side illustrations show how punctuation placement makes a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. Imagine this without the middle period and the comma: “The king walked and talked. A half hour after, his head was cut off.” Oh no—a beheaded king that can still walk and talk! You might want to eat a huge hot dog, but a huge, hot dog would run away pretty quickly if you tried to take a bite out of him. Scenes from all three of Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons’s best-selling punctuation picture books (Eats, Shoots & Leaves, The Girl's Like Spaghetti, and Twenty-Odd Ducks) highlight the important jobs of commas, apostrophes, hyphens, quotation marks, and more in this humorous punctuation primer. “Wordplay or ‘grammarplay’ at its finest.” —School Library Journal

A Times Crime Novel of the Year, the perfect murder mystery read for fans of Richard Osman and Elly Griffiths In the second instalment of Lynne Truss's joyfully quirky crime series, our trio of detectives must investigate the murder of a hapless romantic; an aristocratic con man on the prowl; and a dodgy Brighton nightspot... It is summer in Brighton and the Brighton Belles are on hand to answer any holidaymaker's queries, no matter how big or small. The quickest way to the station, how many pebbles are on the beach and what exactly has happened to that young man lying in the deckchair with blood dripping from him? Constable Twitten has a hunch that the fiendish murder may be connected to a notorious Brighton nightspot and the family that run it, but Inspector Steine is – as ever – distracted by other issues, not least having his own waxwork model made, while Sergeant Brunswick is just delighted to have spied an opportunity to finally be allowed to go undercover... Our incomparable team of detectives are back for another outing in the second instalment of Lynne Truss's joyfully quirky crime series.

The charming first novel in a new comic crime series from New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss. It's 1957, and Inspector Steine rather enjoys his life as a policeman in the seaside British town of Brighton. As far as he's concerned, the town has no criminals, which means no crime, and no stress. But much to Steine's irritation, there's a new constable in town—the keen and clever Constable Twitten, who sees patterns in small, meaningless burglaries and insists on the strange notion that perhaps all the crime has not been cleared out quite as effectively as Steine thinks. Worse yet, some of Constable Twitten's ideas could be correct: when renowned theater critic A. S. Crystal arrives in Brighton to tell the detective the secret he knows about the still-unsolved Aldersgate Stick-Up Case of 1945, he's shot dead in his seat. With a new murder, a new constable, and a new lead on the decades-old mystery, the Brighton Police Force must scramble to solve this delightfully droll mystery in "the funniest crime novel of 2018" ( Wall Street Journal).

Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) is back with a mesmerizing and hilarious tale of cats and murder For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him. It takes a while for Alec to realize he’s not gone mad from grief, that the cat is actually speaking to Wiggy . . . and that much of what we fear about cats is true. They do think they’re smarter than humans, for one thing. And, well, it seems they are! What’s more, they do have nine lives. Or at least this one does – Roger’s older than Methuselah, and his unblinking stare comes from the fact that he’s seen it all. And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths. But will the cat help Alec, or is he one of the dark forces? In the deft and comedic hands of mega-bestseller Lynne Truss, the story is as entertaining as it is addictive” (The Sunday Telegraph) – an increasingly suspenseful and often hysterically funny adventure that will please cat lovers and haters alike. And afterwards, as one critic noted, “You may never look at a cat in quite the same way again” (The Daily Mail).

From the bestselling author of ‘Eats Shoots & Leaves’, an unexpectedly moving, luminously wise and brilliantly funny novel about a Victorian Poet Laureate.

SPECIAL PRICE FOR A LIMITED TIME 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. The alternative ‘Bridget Jones’.

A wonderful comic novel from the bestselling author of ‘Eats Shoots & Leaves’.

Language play iincludes many punctuation marks in this companion to the New York Times #1 bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves! Commas and apostrophes aren't the only punctuation marks that can cause big trouble if they're put in the wrong place. “Twenty-odd ducks” is an estimate of how many are waddling by, but “twenty odd ducks” would not only be a big group, but they’d look very strange! Imagine this without the middle period and the comma: “The king walked and talked. A half hour after, his head was cut off.” Oh no—a beheaded king that can still walk and talk! Truss and Timmons put hyphens, parentheses, quotation marks, periods, and more in the spotlight, with silly scenes showing how which marks you choose and where you put them can cause hilarious mix-ups.

A comanion to the New York Times #1 best-seller Eats, Shoots & Leaves, this is punctuation play at its finest! Just as the use of commas was hilariously demystified in Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!, now Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons put their talents together to do the same for apostrophes. Everyone needs to know where to put an apostrophe to make a word plural or possessive (Are those sticky things your brother's or your brothers?) and leaving one out of a contraction can give someone the completely wrong impression (Were here to help you). Full of silly scenes that show how apostrophes make a difference, too, this is another picture book that will elicit bales of laughter and better punctuation from all who read it. A New York Times Bestseller Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Winner

In 2003, Lynne Truss followed up her popular BBC radio show "Cutting a Dash" with the punctuation sensation Eats, Shoots & Leaves. A former editor, Lynne Truss dares to say that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the necessary things they are. The book hit number one on the bestseller lists, prompting such extraordinary headlines as "Grammar Book Tops Bestseller List." With more than 3 million hardcover copies sold worldwide to date, Lynne Truss has made "the history of punctuation a subject at once urgent, sexy, and hilarious" (John Walsh, The Independent). Lynne Truss will be receiving renewed publicity with the release of her newest book: Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door. Features new illustrations.

"Talk to the hand, ’cause the face ain’t listening," the saying goes. When did the world stop wanting to hear? When did society become so thoughtless? It’s a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says it’s now reached the boiling point. Taking on the boorish behavior that for some has become a point of pride, Talk to the Hand is a rallying cry for courtesy. Like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Talk to the Hand is not a stuffy guidebook, and is sure to inspire spirited conversation. Why hasn’t your nephew ever thanked you for your carefully selected gift? What makes your contractor think it’s fine to snub you in the midst of a major renovation? Why do crowds spawn selfishness? What accounts for the appalling treatment you receive in stores (if you’re lucky enough to get a clerk’s attention at all)? Most important, what will it take to roll back a culture that applauds those who are disrespectful? In a recent U.S. survey, 79 percent of adults said that lack of courtesy was a serious problem. For anyone who’s fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (or lack thereof), Talk to the Hand is a colorful call to arms—from the wittiest defender of the civilized world.

This work adopts a militant approach to punctuation and attempts to recruit an army of vigilantes who will send letters back with the punctuation corrected, not accept sloppy emails, and climb ladders to remove redundant apostrophes from signs.

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.

AT LONG LAST, A WORTHY TRIBUTE TO PUNCTUATION'S STEPCHILDREN: THE NEGLECTED SEMICOLON, THE ENIGMATIC ELLIPSIS AND THE MAD DASH.

Drawing on the gallery's collection of portraits in all media, this text provides an introduction to Alfred Lord Tennyson and his circle. This text is part of the Character Sketches series, providing an historical guide to literary and artistic groups of the past.