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"I have been encouraged by the comments and sales of my book. There does seem to be a passion out there to retain punctuation, and that's good to know."

Being of the generation that punctuation forgot, Lynne's expertise on the subject has been honed over years of editing and writing for such publications as The Listener, The Times, Women's Journal, The Daily Mail and The Sunday Times. She has also written scripts for Radio 4, and regularly has her two pennies' worth on the station's features and discussions.

But Eats, Shoots and Leaves wasn't exactly Lynne Truss's idea.

"It was my publisher's idea. I used to do a radio show on punctuation called Cutting A Dash for Radio 4 - it was a damned good show, too - and we talked to a great many people about the subject. It did really well. So my publisher came up to me and said: 'Do you think there's a book in it?'.

"I think if I had gone to a publisher and asked the same thing it wouldn't have got far."

A year of research and keyboard-bashing later, here we are.

So what is Lynne's biggest bugbear? Surely apostrophes.

"Actually, poor use of apostrophes doesn't surprise me any more, it's so widespread.

"What does surprise me are the obvious ones, like missing question marks. That's so simple and to not bother with it is just rude, I think."

Outspoken on the issue of punctuation she may be, but taking direct action is not one of Lynne's strong points.

"If I do see a sign in the street that's wrong I'm usually too timid to go in and say something.

"There's an Oxfam sign in London that's missing a question mark, and I'm afraid if I go in and tell them they'll turn around and say: 'Well, we do have more important things to worry about here' or something like that.

"I do regularly get annoyed at badly punctuated signs, but I usually just stand outside.

"They probably don't care and might punch me on the nose."

Well, writing a book is a good foundation for the punctuation house that Lynne built, and with any luck its ramifications will be global. Some countries need all the help they can get.

"I was on a drive-time station in Tasmania and they know a smuttier version of the cover joke. At least the same message is getting through!"

For all Lynne could easily make a nuisance of herself correcting everybody and everything (sometimes it's hard not to, she says), she knows when to let it go.

"I was doing a stint in Baghdad, about the same time I was researching the book, when America launched the attack.

"It was just a reminder that there are far more important things in the world than punctuation."

What do YOU think? E-mail pastill@nep.co.uk