Talk to the hand - Lynne Truss

Sticklers unite! The Queen of Zero Tolerance takes on the sorry state of modern manners, in the spirit of her three million copy worldwide bestseller, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. "Talk to the hand 'cause the face ain't listening," the saying goes. When did the world get to be so rude? When did society become so inconsiderate? It's a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says that it has now reached boiling point. Taking on the boorish behaviour that has become a point of pride for some, Talk to the Hand is a rallying cry for courtesy. Like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Talk to the Hand is a spirited conversation, not a stuffy guidebook. It is not about forks, for a start. Why hasn't your nephew ever thanked you for that perfect Christmas present? What makes your builder think he can treat you like dirt in your own home? When you phone a utility with a complaint (and have negotiated the switchboard), why can't you ever speak to a person who is authorised to apologise? What accounts for the appalling treatment you receive in shops? Most important, what will it take to roll back a culture that applauds rudeness and finds it so amusing?
For anyone who's fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (and is naturally too scared to confront the actual yobs), Talk to the Hand is a colourful call to arms - from the wittiest defender of the civilised world.

Lynne Truss is one of Britain's top comic writers and is the author of the number one bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves. It has sold over three million copies worldwide and won the British Book of the Year award in 2004. She has also written four comic books, Going Loco, Making the Cat Laugh, Tennyson's Gift and With One Lousy Free Packet of Seed, all available from Profile Books. She is a regular presenter on Radio 4, a Times columnist and a guest presenter for many other programmes. She lives in Brighton.

The effect of her book is quite inspiring, giving hope
Australia - Sunday Telegraph

Wise and witty elegy for the decline of modern manners
Red

Heads and shoulders above the usual array of stocking fillers
The Week

Beautifully written... a much more interesting work than either a guide to manners or a more dispassionate analysis of rudery could ever be.
Evening Standard - David Sexton

She's opposed to rudeness but on occasion is rude herself - appallingly and wittingly so!
Sydney Morning Herald

Funny and buoyant
Sunday Times

This fine rant against boorish behaviour.
Saga Magazine

An entertaining rant, dotted with acute observations.
The Tablet - Libby Purvis

Highly perceptive, passionately argued and extremely funny
Sunday Telegraph - John Preston

Perfect
Sunday Express

I'm terribly fond of Lynne Truss's book on manners, Talk to the Hand. I'd love to take tea with her but I'd be a little nervous to do so.
Sunday Telegraph - Patrick Marber

(very) readable, (very) funny, (very) engaging
Observer

Anyone who has a sense of "the utter bloody rudeness of everyday life" will identify with much of the Truss jeremiad... a pleasingly wrathful social documentary.
Telegraph - Michael Bywater

It's bound to make you laugh and thump the table in agreement.
Australia - Sun Herald

Always fair, often funny and above all sane.
Ruth Rendell - Books of the Year 2005

So lively, so witty, so exhilaratingly splenetic.... It doesn't really matter how many times we may have shaken our heads in disagreement with her as the experience of reading what she has to say is always so pleasurable
Mail on Sunday - Craig Brown

Bloody funny and an effin good read
Dublin - Sunday Independent