I remain obstinately uninterested in the contents of the third and final volume of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, despite having greatly enjoyed the first two.

What I am intrigued to note, though, is that the book has different titles in the United Kingdom and America. Can you spot the change?

That’s right: the US version has the apostrophe in what is clearly the wrong place in “hornet’s”. The girl would need no great courage to kick a nest that contained but one of the insects.

I was alerted to the difference while reading an article that mentioned the forthcoming film of the book. This said it was called The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I thought this was a mistake, so looked it up and found it wasn’t.

It seems entirely predicable to me that it should be the Americans getting it wrong. Often proscriptive about grammar, they are frequently in error themselves.

An American novelist of some repute emailed me in magisterial tone some months ago to take me to task for . . . but I have run out of space. I’ll tell you about it another time.