Lynne Truss grew up in Petersham and was educated at Tiffin Girls’ Grammar School in Kingston. She gained a first-class honours degree at University College London in English Language and Literature.

After university in 1977, she joined the Radio Times as a sub-editor before moving in 1978 to the Times Higher Education Supplement as the deputy literary editor. She began freelance writing at the same time. Truss was Literary Editor of The Listener (1986–90) and was an arts and books reviewer for The Independent on Sunday before joining The Times in 1991, where first she spent six years writing television criticism, illustrated by John Minnion, followed by four years as a sports columnist. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Woman's Journal. She now reviews books for The Sunday Times. Her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves (November 2003), about the misuse of punctuation, became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States. The book's declaration for a "Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" is considered a rallying call for punctuation "sticklers" of the world. In 2005 she released a book on rudeness titled Talk to the Hand: the utter bloody rudeness of the world today (or six good reasons to stay home and bolt the door).

She is the author of three novels and numerous radio comedy dramas, including the Radio 4 comedy series Acropolis Now, and is a familiar voice on BBC Radio 4. Truss also hosted Cutting a Dash, a popular BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation and frequently delivered humorous monologues in the Fourth Column series. Her 2002/5 radio monologues for actors A Certain Age were collected for publication as a book in 2007. Also in 2007 Radio 4 broadcast her comic drama series Inspector Steine about an incompetent police officer in 1950s Brighton. This was followed by The Casebook of Inspector Steine in 2008. Her latest book is "Get Her Off the Pitch!": how sport took over my life about her work as a sports reporter. Waterstone's: Books Quarterly "Eats, Shoots and Scores" (Lynne Truss on Get Her Off the Pitch! — October 2009)