The winner of the British Book of the Year award is Lynne Truss’s (get that right) Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the ‘zero-tolerance guide to punctuation’ previously profiled in LeafSalon.

‘Mother told me it was a sad book to write,’ Truss (pictured) said. ‘But I thought I might as well have a go since I had a small gap in my schedule.’

She said there was still much to be done in improving the nation generally. ‘I got the taxi to an event and told the driver I was doing a talk on punctuation. He said I'd better get there on time.’

Some of the nightmares that Lynne discovered:

- Dicks in tray (try not to think about it)

- Nouns and apostrophe’s (BBC website advertising a grammar course for children)

- Prudential – were here to help you

ES&L beat J K Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and A Royal Duty by Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell.

And in a no-doubt welcome distraction from the madness we all know and love, David Beckham has won a specially created award for ‘The Fastest Selling Autobiography of All Time’.

Beckham's My Side, co-written with Tom Watt and published by HarperCollins, won the honour after clocking up sales of 103,000 in its first week.

Another winner at the ‘oscars of the book trade’ [sic] was Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, which took the Richard & Judy Best Read of The Year Award, as voted for by the public.

Simon Sebag-Montefiore's Stalin - The Court of the Red Tsar won the history book of the year. Rugby superstar Martin Johnson (pictured) won the sports book of the year for his autobiography, Nigel Slater picked up biography of the year for Toast, and the lifetime achievement award went to Sir David Attenborough.

Check out the BBA website for the full list.