No books of mine were published in the US until Eats, Shoots & Leaves in 2004, which was a number one bestseller within a few days of my arrival.

So it was a very nice way to start. My New York publisher was Gotham, an imprint of Penguin, and my actual editor was Erin Moore, working with Bill Shinker. As is well known, America likes a winner, even when they are British. A man asked for my autograph in Rockefeller Plaza on my way in to the Today Show, and when I said “Are you sure?” he said yes, he had always loved my films. Fair enough, I thought, and signed anyway. (We worked out later he thought I was Teri Garr.) 

Publicity was very extensive, with appearances on TV all over the States and Canada, plus radio interviews and bookshop appearances. Eats, Shoots & Leaves remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 46 weeks, and has sold well ever since compared with in the UK. The amazing aspect of this is that it is written by a British person, explaining and employing British rules of punctuation. I am probably responsible for confusing far more people than I helped. But I always loved getting letters from earnest young American sticklers who had felt alone until my book came along. 

Talk to the Hand went down less well (inevitably) but the audiences still turned out, and I was taken on by a lecture agent to speak all over the place. I once flew to Utah to speak at a university, and flew back again so quickly I didn’t have time to have jetlag. The problem with Talk to the Hand, from the American point of view, was that I proposed no solutions. “What should we do about this?” I was asked, and I just said, “Learn to live with it, probably” – which, in their view, was hardly adequate. 

Meanwhile my publisher brought out The Lynne Truss Treasury, which collected together my first three novels plus Making the Cat Laugh in a very handsome tome. I’ve no idea if it sold, but I do have an enormous number in boxes, if anyone wants one.