A few days ago, Marilyn Hedges, one of our contributors, left a comment to tell us that she had heard on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that Waterstone’s has decided to drop its apostrophe.

As Marilyn summarised:

The reason given was that the apostrophe creates too many difficulties and too much confusion in today’s internet world, particularly with email (in email addresses, etc.). The Apostrophe Protection Society was not best pleased! Could this be the thin end of the wedge for the apostrophe?

In fact, the apostrophe is widely being dropped already, as we can see on this website for instance, which is kept by Woodlands Junior School in Tonbridge, Kent (UK). It seems that the Apostrophe Protection Society is fighting a lost battle.