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[[Category:New Reviews|Trivia]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove --><!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{Frontpage|isbn=1780724047|title=A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs|author=Peter J Conradi|rating=4|genre=Pets|summary=I struggle to resist a book about dogs, but I did wonder why this one was so ''thin'': given that I've never encountered a dog who wasn't interesting or important - and probably both, I was expecting a massive tome. But ''A Dictionary of Interesting and Important Dogs'' is actually ''a rich compendium of the world's most significant and beloved dogs'' and it's certainly a rich treasure trove. We begin with Peter J Conradi's four collies: Cloudy, Sky. Bradley and Max. They're consecutive rather than simultaneous dogs, but what comes over is Conradi's love for each and every one of them. I knew that I was in safe hands.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Stephen HallidayDon Behrend|title=London (Amazing Copernicus! What Have You Done?: ...and Extraordinary Facts)Other Interesting Questions

|summary= What makes a city? Is it the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, of mythological repute, that has moved around several times, and now forms part of a WH SmithHello! Would this review be okay if I simply said ''s branch? (This has nothing, of course, on Temple Bar, which has also been known to walkI LOVED THIS GLORIOUS LITTLE BOOK AND SO WILL YOU.) Is it the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett and Paul Begg|(Jack the Ripper)]], the bakers (or whoever set fire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and the candlestick makers? Is it the infrastructure, from the Underground, whose one-time boss got a medal from Stalin for his success, to the London Bridge itself, that in its own wanderlust means itFIN''s highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again? However you define a city, London certainly has a lot going for it as regards weird and wonderful, and the trivial yet fascinating! Because I did. And, luckily for us, so has this bookyou will.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910821020</amazonuk>1789016770

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Stephen HallidayLloyd_1423|title=London Underground (Amazing 1,423 QI Facts to Bowl You Over|author=John Lloyd, James Harkin and Extraordinary Facts)Anne Miller|rating=45|genre=TravelTrivia|summary= From initial worries about smuttyYou may think me lazy, enclosed air with but there is an inherent satisfaction for book reviewers in hitting upon a pungent smell to decades of human hair book such as this – you know you will have very little bearing on its sales, and engine grease causing escalator fires; from what's more you hardly even need describe it – just dip in here and there for a few lines connecting London termini to major jaunts out into Metro-land for quotes, and sit back and relax knowing your job is done. ''Only 1% of people who buy marmalade are under the suburbia-bound commuters; and from a few religious-minded if financially dodgy pioneer investment managers to Crossrail; age of 28. Treadmills were once the history harshest form of punishment after the worlddeath penalty. Naked mole-rats can survive for 18 minutes without oxygen by turning themselves into plants.'s most extensive underground system (even when a majority is actually above ground) is fascinating to many' And the whole of page 52. This There, job done – and the creators of this book is a repository of much that is entirely trivial, but is also pretty much thoroughly interestingcertainly have done their job to perfection.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821039</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julian HollandBrightside_101|title=Railways (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)|rating=3|genre=Travel|summary=How and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)? They reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, at whose launch the latter had officiated before the War. What's the worst that can happen when you travel internationally and arrive on a London goods train with no further destination documents? Well, if you're an unidentifiable Peruvian mummy you can get buried as an unknown corpse before 101 Things to Take the invoice turns up to prove you were wanted in Belgium. After so many miles and so much drama, it's no surprise odd facts and fun trivia derive from our country's trains. This book is designed to be an ideal source Stress Out of quick articles and fun mini-essays for use in the smallest room.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821004</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewChristmas|author=Graeme Donald|title=Words of a FeatherRobin Snow

|genre=ReferenceTrivia|summary= Words For many years one of a Feather. The title alone suggests an engaging read about language, and my guiding principles has been that the C word should not be mentioned until the book certainly delivers. It pairs seemingly unrelated wordsbeginning of December but, digs up their etymological roots and reveals their common ancestry. The English language, of courseunfortunately, provides rich pickings indeed for a book of this type and it is fascinating C seems to see the hidden meaning behind common be coming earlier each year and not-so-common words. Some connections there are fairly obvious once you read them. For example, the link between ''grotto'' and ''grotesque'' is easy even shops where it never ceases to grasp: the word ''grotesque'' derives from unpleasant figures depicted in murals in Ancient Roman ''grottoes''. Other connections are just extraordinarybe imminent, like the so-crazy-you-couldn't-make-it-which ramps up connection between ''furnace'' and ''fornicate''. These two words date back to Ancient Rome when prostitutes took over the city's abandoned baking domesstress levels considerably. And some connections are more than a little tenuousSo, seemingly just a collection book which promises 101 things to take the stress out of words banded together, as is the case with the ''insult'' and ''salmon'' pairingC seemed like a good idea. One of my personal favourites: What’s it about? Tips like putting the Italian word ''schiavo'' for ''slave'' was used sprouts on to summon boil in November or dismiss joining a slave; this word became corrupted to ''ciao''religion which avoids the celebration altogether? Well, a word the more well-heeled among us use instead of ''goodbye''not quite.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178418814X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth BinneyBrightside_Worry|title=The English Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)101 Things to do instead of worrying about the world|author=Felicity Brightside

|genre=Animals and WildlifeTrivia|summary=I live in don't think that I've ever been quite so worried about the state of the countryside world as I have been of late - and spend as much time I speak as someone who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis and various other apocalyptic moments. It almost certainly comes down to a lack of confidence in the weather will allow exploring people who are supposedly in charge, whether it, so the chance to read Ruth Binney's ''The English Countryside'' was too good to be missedfrom a political point of view or of our stewardship of this planet we call home. But what can be done about it? We've met Ruth [[The Allotment Experience by Ruth Binney|before]] at Bookbag tried voting, arguing and demonstrating. Now we know that she writes well 're down to pulling up the drawbridge and interestingly, but just one thing was worrying me doing our best to think about this book. It's a hardback and beautifully presented but its the size of book that you slip into a pocket or handbagsomething else. Would it be rather superficial?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910821012</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin1342|title=1,234 342 QI Facts to To Leave You SpeechlessFlabbergasted|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Anne Miller

|summary=''No US President has ever died in MayI love the way the QI elves play games with us with [[:Category:John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin|these books]].'' That's not to say it'There are fewer women on corporate boards s a game of pulling the wool over our eyes, for every entrant in America than there are men named John.'' ''Dogs investigate bad smells this series has had the equivalent online version for the sources, so every page is replicated with the due links you need to search for proof of their right nostril and good smells with their leftstatements.'' ''Apollo 11's fuel consumption was seven inches to No, the gallongame is Six Degrees of Separation.'' And they''The first occupational disease ever recorded re so good at it, they can do most things in medical literature was 'chimney sweep's scrotum'three.'' ''The song 'YesSo in just three standalone, but thematically linked, phrases, We Have No Bananas' was written by Leon Trotsky's nephew.'' you can get from how to make the sound of an Orc army for ''In the 18th Century, King George I declared all pigeon droppings to be property Lord of the CrownRings''films to record-breaking nipple hair. I hardly think I need say any From illicit wartime barbers in Italy to American founding father bedroom arrangements, is only three steps – and the path carries on to reach that erstwhile novice stand-up, Ronald Reagan, in two more. Review overIt's only two jumps between Donald Trump and Charles Darwin, disconcertingly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571326684</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Fred BenensonLloyd_1411|title= How to Speak Emoji1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin|rating= 4.5|genre= Trivia|summary= Emojis are funHandsome is as handsome does. And you know what else benefits from being curt and succinct, and therealongside old housewives's so much more saws like that one? Trivia. I always thought the QI books such as this one to them than the smileys of days gone by ? They can be a language unto themselveshandsome things – perfectly presenting trivia, thoughfour (on rare occasion, and I've found that some members of three) statements to thepage, ahem, older generation can find themselves in a very nice little troubled by themcubical hardback. This bookNow they're being represented in paperback, then, sounds perfect for anyone who needs a little help with this 'languagebut you know what? They're still handsome things.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178503202X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Lloyd_1339|title=1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, and James Harkin and Andrew Hunter Murray|title=QI: The Third Book of General Ignorance

|summary=Well done, Hartlepool. You didnA spermologer ''t put on trial and kill is a shipwrecked monkey thinking it collector of trivia''. Just that sentence tells you a Napoleonic spy lot – any we're once more than in the realm of the several other places thusly accused ever did. Well donecurt, Italy, for making succinct approach to the ciabatta such a global phenomenon it seems like a traditional foodstuff, even if it was invented in 1982world's information and oddities. And well done to that famous ice hockey playerIt says more, Charles Darwin however – who was probably playing it, seeing as it was a British invention, long before beyond the weirdness of the word is the Canadians ever realised they might be good at it. Yes, obvious necessity for a book the word to exist – without people that spends a lot could be called collectors of its time saying 'this didn’t happentrivia you would not need the term. And rest assured,' 'hoojamaflip didn't do this,' and 'there are currently few people that was never thus', it's one that's incredibly easy to be most positive aboutstand as better spermologers than the chief QI elves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571308988</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Caroline TaggartMetcalf_Skedaddle|title=New From Skedaddle to Selfie: Words for Old: Recycling Our Language for of the Modern WorldGeneration|author=Allan Metcalf

|summary=I never declare myself off have to have go a 'kip'roundabout way to introduce this book, as I recall reading that it originally meant the same amount of sleeping – and activity – as happens in a whorehouseso bear with me. The word 'cleave' can mean either to split apart, or to connect together, It stems partly from dictionaries and I'm sure there's another word that has completely changed its meaning from one end the etymology of things to another although I can't remember which. Certainlythe language we use, ''literally'' has tried its best to make but more so if anything from a full switch through rampant misuse. Such is the nature different couple of our language – fluid both in spelling until moderately recentlybooks, and definitely in meaningtheir ideas of generations. This attempt at capturing a corner The authors of those posited the trivia/words/novelty market is interested in such tales from idea that all those archetypical generations – the etymological world – Baby Boomers, the way we have adapted old words for our ownMillennials, modern and perhaps very different usages. Certainlythose before, having browsed it over a week, I can declare it a pretty strong attempt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434720</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Steve Tribe|title=The All New University Challenge Quiz Book: Questions, Answers, Facts, Figures and everything in between|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=[Cue theme music. Lights up on presenter, who waffles on about establishments providing contestants and since – De Montfort Universityhave their own cyclical pattern, local puband the history of humanity has been and will be formed by the interplay of just four different kinds, family unitrunning (with only one exception) in regular order. Contestants I don'treally hold much store by that, for once, introduce themselves as itand I certainly didn's probably a given that they t know each other. we'd started one since the Millennials – who the heck decides such things, for one? Contestants imbibe nervous sips of 'water'Somebody must have put out an order'', and settle backas someone here says of something else.] ''You all know But in the rulessame way as generations get defined by collective persons unknown, so let's not waste time do words – here's your first starter for ten.''  Yesand those words are certainly a clue to what was important, this book throws no punches predominant and attempts to put you of course spoken in the spotlight of one of the nation's most superlative televisual institutions – but does it manage it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184949701X</amazonuk>each decade.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabrielle Balkan and Sol LineroHalliday_Cathedrals|title=The 50 States: Explore the U.S.A. with 50 fact-filled maps!|rating=2.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary= I've often shouted at people on UK quiz programmes for their ignorance of geography about their nation. People just don't seem to have learnt about or been to other areas of the place they call home. But while they get little sympathy from me when they lose the programme's cash prize, I can imagine that it would be much harder for them if they actually lived in a large country, such as the USA. 50 whole states of different size, all with a rich history of their own, their own famous places Cathedrals and their own noted people – the facts involved in absorbing all that's relevant would take a lot of research – or, paradoxically, this handy child-friendly book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847807119</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Rob Temple|title=Very British Problems Abroad|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Meet, if you haven't already, the phenomenon of the Very British Problem. In this format they're in pithy little comments Abbeys (of, ooh, about 140 characters in length, for some reason…Amazing and Extraordinary Facts) and detail the minor things in life that we like nothing more than to inflate to a major factor of life. They can involve manners, staring at things until they mend themselves, hitting things ditto, or the fact that nobody apart from you and I know how to queue properly. And if the idea hits the world outside our shores, then – well, you certainly have a book full of content regarding our attitude and ineptitude abroad.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751558494</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Kevin Flude|title=Divorced, Beheaded, Died...: The History of Britain's Kings and Queens in Bite-Sized ChunksStephen Halliday

|summary=I love spending time with Mitchell Symons books. If you donWhat makes a cathedral? It's not automatically the principal church of anywhere that is made a city – St Davids is a village of 2,000 people and wasn't know himalways a city, but always had a cathedral, heas did Chelmsford. It's written this book, that booknot the seat of a bishop – Glasgow has the building but not the person, and hasn't had a book actually called bishop since 1690. It's not a minster – that'This Books something completely different, and if you can understand the sign in the delightful Beverley Minster describing the difference, that I saw only the other month, you'' and re a better man I, Gunga Din. Luckily this book actually called doesn''That Book''. He knows his trivia, he gets a lot of info t touch on the pageminsters much, and we can really come across at understand abbeys, so it's only the best vast majority of times as this book that is saddled with the definition problem. It's clearly not a convivial host. So pair himreal problem, and those it does have are by-passable, for this successfully defines a cathedral as has happened heresomewhere of major importance, with the weird fine trivia and wonderful world greatly worthy of words and only great things could be expected. Unfortunately, then, only just above average things were expectedour attention.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782432574</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Bramley_Shakespeare|title=An Unkindness of Ravens: A Book of Collective NounsThe Shakespeare Trail|author=Chloe RhodesZoe Bramley|rating=54

|summary=We have all heard of a ''Pride of Lions'It has been 400 years since William Shakespeare, the man heralded as the greatest writer in the English language, and England's national poet, died. Shakespeare has made a ''Herd of Cattle'' profound mark on our culture and a ''Flock heritage, yet many aspects of Birds'', but what about his life remain in the less commonshadows, long and many places throughout England have forgotten collective nounstheir association with him. Here, like: Zoe Bramley takes the reader on a ''Bloat journey through hundreds of Hippopotami'', places associated with Shakespeare – many whose connections will come as a ''Mutation surprise to most. Filled with intriguing tidbits of Thrushes''information about Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, a ''Herd of Harlots'' or a ''Superfluity of Nuns''? If you are interested in the English language and the origin of wordsplaces that she talks about, then you will really enjoy browsing this bookis no mere travel guide.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433082</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Who Invented The Stepover? (And Other Crucial Football Conundrums)Halliday_London|author=Paul Simpson and Uli Hesse|rating=4|genre=Sport|summarytitle=In 1982, second division Charlton Athletic staged an unlikely transfer coup by signing former European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsen. If the thought of the Danish superstar forsaking the glamour of Barcelona for south east London seemed unlikely then consider that Simonsen had previously faked his own death during a World Cup qualifier.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250065</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Outraged of Tunbridge Wells: Original Complaints from Middle England|author=Nigel Cawthorne|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=It was ever thus… cyclists go too fast, without using a hooter or lights; there are hoodlums everywhere one looks, (Amazing and no public conveniences; people pretend to have qualifications and degrees they haven't rightfully earned; buses are too busy with shopping women who should be indoors already, cooking for their working menfolk… It's a very clever idea to show exactly what is behind the 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' tag, and as a book to be shelved alongside those with the wackier letters sent to the ''Daily Telegraph'', these selections from the Royal town's press itself make a great eye-opener to the complaints and complainants of Kent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908096918</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Dedicated to...: The Forgotten Friendships, Hidden Stories and Lost Loves found in Second-hand BooksExtraordinary Facts)|author=W B GooderhamStephen Halliday

|summary=This book just had to be called ''The Horologicon''. What makes a city? Originally Is it meant a daily diary the materials, such as the very London Stone itself, of mythological repute, that has moved around several times, and now forms part of devotion for a priest or monk. WH Smith's branch? Our author knows it is a rare word these days and gives it to his modern Book (This has nothing, of Hourscourse, on Temple Bar, which is a guide has also been known to similarly obsoletewalk.) Is it the people – the butchers [[Jack the Ripper: CSI: Whitechapel by John Bennett and Paul Begg|(Jack the Ripper)]], charming the bakers (or unusually whimsical words whoever set outfire to the entire city from Pudding Lane) and the candlestick makers? Is it the infrastructure, not as others dofrom the Underground, as whose one-time boss got a dictionarymedal from Stalin for his success, but to the London Bridge itself, that in essays its own wanderlust means it's highly unlikely the Thames will freeze again? However you define a city, London certainly has a lot going for every waking hour of the dayit as regards weird and wonderful, and the subject they're most likely to covertrivial yet fascinating. And, luckily for us, so has this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848314159</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Arthur PlotnikHolland_Railways|title=Better Than GreatRailways (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)|author=Julian Holland|rating=53

|summary=Better Than Great is How and when did Laurel and Hardy replace the Duke of York (George VI)? They reopened the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when peacetime resumed, at whose launch the latter had officiated before the War. What's the worst that can happen when you travel internationally and arrive on a bravuraLondon goods train with no further destination documents? Well, ingeniously inventiveif you're an unidentifiable Peruvian mummy you can get buried as an unknown corpse before the invoice turns up to prove you were wanted in Belgium. After so many miles and so much drama, roaringly intelligent thesaurus it's no surprise odd facts and fun trivia derive from our country's trains. This book is designed to be an ideal source of praise quick articles and acclaim fun mini- oh, momma! Where has this paean-worthy, distressingly excellent book, which certainly goes essays for use in the whole hog, been all my life?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0285641336</amazonuk>smallest room.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joel LevyDonald_Words|title=Why?Words of a Feather|author=Graeme Donald|rating=54

|summary=Why does Words of a Feather. The title alone suggests an engaging read about language, and the Titanic float but book certainly delivers. It pairs seemingly unrelated words, digs up their etymological roots and reveals their common ancestry. The English language, of course, provides rich pickings indeed for a brick sink? And that water they’re sinking or floating book of this type and it is fascinating to see the hidden meaning behind common and not-so-common words. Some connections are fairly obvious once you read them. For example, the link between ''grotto'' and ''grotesque'' is easy to grasp: the word ''grotesque'' derives from unpleasant figures depicted in murals inAncient Roman ''grottoes''. Other connections are just extraordinary, why is like the so-crazy-you-couldn't-make-it wet? -up link between ''furnace'' and ''fornicate''. These two words date back to Ancient Rome when prostitutes took over the city's abandoned baking domes. And what colour some connections are more than a little tenuous, seemingly just a collection of words banded together, as is it, ‘cos it ain’t clear? These questions the case with the ''insult'' and many more are answered in ''salmon'' pairing. One of my personal favourites: the Italian word ''schiavo'' for ''slave'' was used to summon or dismiss a slave; this book which may not be word became corrupted to ''ciao'', a new concept but which is executed extremely word the more well-heeled among us use instead of ''goodbye''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843179512</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David AstleBinney_English|title=PuzzledThe English Countryside (Amazing and Extraordinary Facts)|author=Ruth Binney

|summary=Words are wonderful enough when they’re I live in the countryside and spend as much time as the weather will allow exploring it, so the chance to read Ruth Binney's ''The English Countryside'' was too good to be missed. We've met Ruth [[The Allotment Experience by Ruth Binney|before]] at Bookbag and we know that she writes well and interestingly, but just telling you things straight up, one thing was worrying me about this book. It's a hardback and beautifully presented but who can resist them when they’re really being playful? Not David Astle, its the author size of this new title book that blows the lid on it all with what he calls 'secrets and clues from you slip into a life in words'pocket or handbag.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685427</amazonuk> Would it be rather superficial?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph PiercyLloyd_1234|title=The Story of English1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless|author=John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin|rating=35

|summary=''The Story of EnglishNo US President has ever died in May.'' ''There are fewer women on corporate boards in America than there are men named John.'' ''Dogs investigate bad smells with their right nostril and good smells with their left.'' ''Apollo 11' sets out s fuel consumption was seven inches to be a potted history of the influences that have shaped our languagegallon.'' ''The first occupational disease ever recorded in medical literature was 'chimney sweep's scrotum'.'' ''The song 'Yes, from the Lindisfarne Gospels to LOLcatsWe Have No Bananas' was written by Leon Trotsky's nephew.com. Starting with '' ''In the pre-Roman Celts and their Ogham alphabet18th Century, it goes crashing through fifteen hundred years of linguistic history at a terrific pace King George I declared all pigeon droppings to end with an almost audible sigh be the property of relief at the internet ageCrown''. I hardly think I need to say any more. Review over.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843178834</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Phil Daoust (editor)Berenson_How|title=Write.|rating=4.5|genre=Reference|summary=The Guardian newspaper has for some years now been publishing articles and interviews on how How to write. Successful authors, agents and publishers have offered pearls of wisdom in the Guardian Masterclasses for genres as wide-ranging as travel writing, picture books and screenplays. Now their wisdom and their insights have been collected together in this slim volume which will intrigue both the readers and the writers among us.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085265328X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSpeak Emoji|author=Nigel Fountain|title=Cliches: Avoid Them Like the PlagueFred Benenson

|summary=Cliché is such an awful word with all its connotations of the triteEmojis are fun, the hackneyed and the overused. Itthere's a word you'd hate so much more to have associated with your writing, even if you produce nothing more public them than a shopping list but for the benefit smileys of the discerning reader Nigel Fountain has compiled days gone by ;) They can be a list in alphabetical order of these dreaded phrases. I began readinglanguage unto themselves, though, confident that I couldn't be caught out and then blushed when I realised that I'd just pointed out to someone ve found that avoiding clichés wasnsome members of the, ahem, older generation can find themselves a little troubled by them. This book, then, sounds perfect for anyone who needs a little help with this 't rocket science. They agreed that it isnlanguage't brain surgery either.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843174863</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MaloneyLloyd_3rd|title=Bright Young ThingsQI: The Third Book of General Ignorance|rating=4|genre=History|summaryauthor=According to the summary I read of ''Bright Young Things'' before choosing the book to read, it 'takes a sweeping look at the changing world of the Jazz Age'. I was expecting it to be something of a narrative account of the Roaring Twenties – in actual factJohn Lloyd, it's set out as a collection of trivia about the decade. SimilarlyJohn Mitchinson, the 'first person accounts' mentioned on the inside front cover are limited to two or three sentence quotes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753540975</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=E Foley James Harkin and B Coates|title=Homework for Grown UpsAndrew Hunter Murray

|summary=School days can sometimes seem like a very long time agoWell done, Hartlepool. You most likely spent 12 to 14 years of early life learning in didn't put on trial and kill a shipwrecked monkey thinking it a classroom, but how much can you remember? Sure, you can count, and you know your alphabet, but all those Napoleonic spy – any more than the several other lessons you hadplaces thusly accused ever did. Well done, how much can you really remember of those? If you want or need to remember back to your school lessons (to help your own children with their homeworkItaly, to win pub quizzesfor making the ciabatta such a global phenomenon it seems like a traditional foodstuff, whatever the reason) then this book can helpeven if it was invented in 1982. Covering ten subjects from English and Maths And well done to Sciencethat famous ice hockey player, Home Ec and HistoryCharles Darwin – who was probably playing it, it’s seeing as it was a crash course to refresh your knowledge – all those things you kinda know deep downBritish invention, but at long before the same time have forgotten Canadians ever realised they might be good at least it. Yes, for a book that spends a little bitlot of its time saying 'this didn’t happen,' 'hoojamaflip didn't do this,' and 'that was never thus', it's one that's incredibly easy to be most positive about.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540029</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mikael Krogerus and Roman TschappelerTaggart_New|title=The Question Book|rating=4.5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=Most of us have probably made at least one of those end-of-the-year lists of the best books, albums and parties we have been to in the previous twelve months. But can you, with some effort, locate the one you made in 1987? Have you ever constructed a graph of your ups and downs in a given period, and then decided to expand it by separating emotional, intellectual, sexual and financial aspects and colour coding them? Have you made a list of all your lovers, bosses or friends and then rated them from 1 to 10 on several dimensions each? Do you have one of the books that list ''100 things to do before you die'' or ''500 books to read in your life'' (and ticked off the ones you have done)? Did you ever spend a whole evening and half of a night filling in dubious 'personality' questionnaires on the Internet? Have you ever doodled something, decided that it beautifully expresses the deepest essence of your personality and then proceeded to draw such icons New Words for all your friends? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685389</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Francesca Simon|title=Horrid Henry's A - Z of Everything Horrid|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry is a very popular little boy, although you might have a different opinion if you actually had to put up with his antics yourself. A slightly modernised embodiment of 'slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails' concept of boyhood, Henry is naughtiness personified, combining irreverence Old: Recycling Our Language for authority with a huge dose of gross-out crude humour that really appeals to the target readership of early primary school children. Add a somewhat nostalgic, timeless feel, trademark alliterations, subtle (and not so subtle) digs at family dynamics, sibling rivalry and particularly at modern middle-class manners and sensibilities and you have a winning character and a base for a very successful edutainment franchise.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444002260</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewModern World|author=Mark Forsyth|title=The EtymologiconCaroline Taggart|rating=3.5

|summary=I like wordsnever declare myself off to have a 'kip', as I recall reading that it originally meant the same amount of sleeping – and activity – as happens in a whorehouse. Words are awesome. End The word 'cleave' can mean either to split apart or to connect together, and I'm sure there's another word that has completely changed its meaning from one end ofthings to another although I can't remember which. But I also like trivia Certainly, ''literally'' has tried its best to make a full switch through rampant misuse. I like knowing things that perhaps other people don’t Such is the nature of our language – fluid both in spelling until moderately recently, and helpfully passing on this knowledge to themdefinitely in meaning. So This attempt at capturing a book about word-related corner of the trivia /words/novelty market is just interested in such tales from the etymological world – the way we have adapted old words for our own, modern and perhaps very different usages. Certainly, having browsed it over a win-winweek, and this one is so good I think we’ll have to call can declare it a win-win-winpretty strong attempt.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848313071</amazonuk>