Have You Eaten Grandma?
Or, the Life-Saving Importance of Correct Punctuation, Grammar, and Good English
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
For anyone who wants to make fewer (not less) grammar mistakes, this “passionate, enlightening, and easily navigable manual is certainly the right book at the right time” (Publishers Weekly)—reminiscent of the New York Times bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
Our language is changing, literary levels are declining, and our grasp of grammar is at a crisis point. From commas to colons, apostrophes to adverbs, there are countless ways we can make mistakes when writing or speaking. But do not despair! Great Britain’s most popular grammar guru has created the ultimate modern manual for English speakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
In this “irreverent and conversational” (Booklist) guide to proper punctuation and so much more, Gyles Brandreth explores the linguistic horrors of our times, tells us what we’ve been doing wrong, and shows us how to can get it right every time. Covering everything from dangling participles to transitive verbs, from age-old conundrums like “lay” vs. “lie,” to the confounding influences of social media on our everyday language, Have You Eaten Grandma? is an endlessly useful and entertaining resource for all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Self-styled "language obsessive and... punctuation perfectionist" Brandreth (Oscar Wilde and the Return of Jack the Ripper), a mystery novelist, BBC broadcaster, and former member of Parliament, defends the correct use of English in this witty usage guide. Presenting "the richest language in the world" as a well-established route to health, wealth, and happiness albeit one imperiled by social media and other modern developments he starts with the basics: proper punctuation, dashes and hyphens, apostrophes, spelling, and pluralization. Brandreth uses humorous examples, historical asides (Dan Quayle's "potatoe" spelling), extensive charts, and mnemonic devices of his own creation to illustrate his points. Though the Queen's (i.e., British) English is his main focus, he also sets aside his "stiff upper lip" (a stereotypically English trait which is actually an American coinage) to explore its many divergences from American English. The resulting confusion, he shows, is compounded by the continual addition of all types of new words into the common lexicon, such as social media lingo, euphemisms, and portmanteaus. Ultimately, clarity, not rigid rule-adherence, is key to Brandreth's philosophy of writing. Bolstered with an epilogue giving straightforward definitions for different parts of speech, his passionate, enlightening, and easily navigable manual is certainly the right book at the right time.
