I thought I'd better let the guy that's interested, know that I'm still working on It's All In The Mind. I'm well into chapter four now, though progress has dropped off a little in the last few weeks. Don't ask me why, I have no more idea than you do.
Back to my title. When I was taught English, about fifty-five years ago, I was always taught that a conjunction was used to connect two simple sentences into a complex sentence, and should always be preceded by a comma. In fact, that last sentence demonstrated that usage ( ...sentence, and ... ), as far as my English teachers were concerned, starting a sentence with a conjunction was a definite 'no-no'.
The point is, why do I see so many authors on SoL starting sentences with conjunctions? (Particularly 'and'!) Is this just the way the language is now taught in Amerenglish? Have the rules changed? I know there are cultural differences in English usage between the UK and the US, but this seems a little too fundamental. I've said before that English teachers in the US don't teach English, but the dialect I call Amerenglish. Is starting sentences with conjunctions part of that dialect? Maybe there are some readers just out of high school who can tell me how English is taught in the US?
Anyway, I hope I haven't upset the sensibilities of any of my colonial cousins, I love you all really.