IT’S always a surprise to me which of my weekly columns inspires the largest amount of correspondence from readers.

And I was recently shocked by how many people got in touch about my having written to Faber & Faber to complain about an ‘it’s’ error in a new £25 hardback book.

If I’d known it would have hit such a nerve, I’d have written about it years ago when I was incredulous at the mistake in a national retailer’s seasonal campaign, the slogan for which was “Turning shopping on it’s head.”

How many people, in senior positions, must have seen and approved the posters, paraphernalia and every other aspect of this no doubt hugely expensive undertaking?

I must confess that it bothered me so much when I drove into the Festival Place car park to be confronted by the poster with the incorrect ‘its’ at the top – which was attached to the entry barriers - that I’d shout “It’s = it is!” out the car window in disdain.

I loved reading the emails from readers who were happy to admit that they are as pedantic as I am, and I also had numerous chats with friends who’d seen the column and confessed that they are just as bad.

I loved hearing from Maggie and Gerry, who sent me a list of their ‘hates’, which included the confusion re ‘fewer’ and ‘less’ – one of my husband’s pet peeves – the ‘of’ / ‘have’ embarrassment and the mispronunciation of certain words.

One friend, Bryn, alerted me via Facebook to a column Lynne Truss – the author of Eats Shoots and Leaves – had written in that week’s Radio Times about the “gentle joy” of correcting errors.

I had said magazine at home – Benedict Cumberbatch was on the cover – and I found it hilarious that, a few pages past Lynne’s column, there was another basic mistake in an article about a new medical drama – “who’s heart” instead of “whose heart”.

And I bonded with John, one of my regular contacts, over the spelling of focused. A double ‘s’ is also correct, but we can’t stand that version! They definitely made me feel that I am not alone, and I really want to thank them and everyone else who got in touch.

The frustration at the preponderance of similar errors and the comedic results they can result in clearly unites quite a few of us.

I must admit that I replied to one reader, mentioning my frustration re the confusion over compliment / complement, and what mistake should crop up in a story by one of our reporters in the next edition of our own paper? That very one!

I do, however, make the case very strongly that we are a small team trying our best to put out a paper in straitened and trying times. We’re not a £25 book which has been proofread by countless people prior to its publication.

Please bear with us - we are doing our utmost!