Just when you thought it was safe to start showing off again, the bestselling authors of The Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off are back. With a foreword by Stephen Fry, this parcel of unimaginable information is here to solve a few common misconceptions, mistakes and misunderstandings. Octopuses have six legs, oranges aren't orange, bats aren't blind, napoleon wasn't short, vikings didn't wear horned helmets, there is no such thing as a fish. QI: The Second Book of General Ignorance is the essential set text for everyone who's proud to admit that they don't know everything, and an ideal stick with which to beat people who think they do. John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are the bestselling authors of QI: The Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off. Here they present a wonderful collection of astonishingly interesting facts, perfect for pub quiz lovers, trivia buffs and general knowledge experts alike.
The Third Book of General Ignorance gathers together 180 questions, both new and previously featured on the BBC TV programme's popular 'General Ignorance' round, and show why, when it comes to general knowledge, none of us knows anything at all.Who invented the sandwich? What was the best thing before sliced bread? Who first ate frogs' legs? Which cat never changes its spots? What did Lady Godiva do? What can you legally do if you come across a Welshman in Chester after sunset?
The Meaning of Liff has sold hundreds of thousands of copies since it was first published in 1983, and remains a much-loved humour classic. This edition has been revised and updated, and includes The Deeper Meaning of Liff, giving fresh appeal to Douglas Adams and John Lloyd's entertaining and witty dictionary. In life, there are hundreds of familiar experiences, feelings and objects for which no words exist, yet hundreds of strange words are idly loafing around on signposts, pointing at places. The Meaning of Liff connects the two. BERRIWILLOCK (n.) - An unknown workmate who writes 'All the best' on your leaving card. ELY (n.) - The first, tiniest inkling that something, somewhere has gone terribly wrong. GRIMBISTER (n.) - Large body of cars on a motorway all travelling at exactly the speed limit because one of them is a police car. KETTERING (n.) - The marks left on your bottom or thighs after sunbathing on a wickerwork chair. OCKLE (n.) - An electrical switch which appears to be off in both positions. WOKING (ptcpl.vb.) - Standing in the kitchen wondering what you came in here for.
John Lloyd was the poster boy of British tennis - a former British number one, Grand Slam finalist, Wimbledon mixed-doubles champion and Davis Cup captain. Remarkably, he and his two brothers, David (of leisure club fame) and Tony, all played in the singles championship at Wimbledon in the same year: a testament to the parents who believed in their sons' dreams as the boys batted tennis balls against a garage wall in Essex. Told with humour and honesty, John's autobiography is filled with intimate insight and captivating tales of Hollywood celebrities, tennis icons, broadcasting greats and loves lost - from his marriage to the legendary Chris Evert and dealings with Donald Trump to his sobering battle with cancer and drug addiction at the heart of his family. As the story unfolds, the John of today sends letters of advice to his former self in a yearnful act of 'if I only knew then what I know now'. What we now know for certain is that John Lloyd has lived an extraordinary life.
An indispensable compendium of popular misconceptions, misunderstandings and common mistakes culled from the hit BBC show, QI. From the bestselling authors of The Book of General Ignorance comes a noticeably stouter edition, with 26% extra facts and figures perfect for trivia, pub quiz and general knowledge enthusiasts. The QI team sets out again to show you that a lot of what you think you know is wrong. If, like Alan Davies, you still think the Henry VIII had six wives, the earth has only one moon, that George Washington was the first president of the USA, that Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, that the largest living thing is a blue whale, that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, that whisky and bagpipes come from Scotland or that Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain, then there are at least 200 reasons why this is the book for you. The researchers at QI have written many bestselling books including such titles as The QI Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 Facts To Blow Your Socks Off. They now present a noticeably stouter edition, an indispensable handbook for trivia lovers, pub quiz enthusiasts and general knowledge experts alike. And remember - everything you think you know is still wrong.
Join QI's expedition into the animal kingdom to encounter 100 of its most remarkable subjects. Marvel at the elephants that walk on tiptoe, pigs that shine in the dark, and the woodlouse that drinks through its bottom.Albatrosses can fly non-stop for ten years without touching the ground. Box jellyfish have twenty-four eyes. Geese mourn their dead. Koalas don't drink. Monkeys pay to look at porn. Lobsters live for a century. Mice sing while having sex. Spiders can fly.
Welcome to QI: The Book of the Dead, a biographical dictionary with a twist - one where only the most interesting people made it in!QI have got together six dozen of the happiest, saddest, maddest and most successful men and women from history. Celebrate their wisdom, learn from their mistakes and marvel at their bad taste in clothes. Hans Christian Anderson was terrified of naked women, Florence Nightingale spent her last fifty years in bed, Sigmund Freud smoked twenty cigars a day, Catherine de Medici applied a daily face mask made of pigeon dung, Rembrandt van Rijn died penniless and Madame Mao banned cicadas, rustling noises and pianos. Carefully collected and ordered by the QI team into themed chapters with thought-provoking titles such as 'There's Nothing Like a Bad Start in Life', 'Man Cannot Live by Bread Alone'. Each chapter reveals hilarious insights into the true nature of the most interesting people who ever lived, including Isaac Newton, Genghis Khan, Sigmund Freud, Florence Nightingale and Karl Marx. From the bestselling authors of The Book of General Ignorance and 1,277 Facts to Knock Your Socks Off, comes a fun and inspirational biographical dictionary, with motivational stories about the famous and the obscure.
From Meloni's Italy to the Sweden Democrats, Lloyd's on-the-ground reporting reveals the radical right's plans for power across Europe, as popular support rises higher than ever.
Set in current times, in the 'Heart of England', the story tracks the journey of an elderly man as he seeks to rediscover a friendship fromthe days of his childhood.It leads to the two friends rekindling their friendship and going on to combine their unique skills to help others locate missing loved ones. The small team of veteran investigators embark on their first case, one that leads them on a rollercoaster Of emotions and unexpected twists and into the dark and complex world far more challenging than they had initially envisioned.A triumph in storytelling, blending friendship, adventure and mystery in a masterful way.
The Doctor, Romana and K9 find themselves at the centre of a most unusual trial when an intergalactic corporation wants to bulldoze planet Earth for a development project. If The Doctor can Earth contains intelligent life, the whole world will be saved. But with a fortune at stake, it was never going to be that simple.
The Museum of Curiosity is BBC Radio 4's monumental comedy edifice, and the only one with gargoyles in the foyer. It allows nothing inside that doesn't make you scratch your head, stroke your chin or, at the very least, go 'Hmm'. Fortunately, helping to fill its vacant plinths is a gathering of the world's most original minds. Among the guests bearing donations to the museum in these 25 episodes are Neil Gaiman, Sarah Millican, Clive James, Kate Adie, Sir Terry Pratchett, Ronni Ancona, Jon Ronson, Bettany Hughes, Ben Elton, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, Alain de Botton, Charlotte Uhlenbroek, Alistair Fothergill, Ruth Padel, Jonathan Miller, Lucie Green, Marcus du Sautoy, Sara Wheeler, Brian Eno, Shappi Khorsandi, John Hodgman, Chris Addison, Roger Law, Tim Minchin, Philip Pullman, Richard Wiseman, Victoria Finlay, Simon Singh, Jimmy Carr, Graham Linehan, Sarah Bakewell, Robin Ince, David Eagleman, Natalie Haynes, Brian Blessed, Alan Davies, Gareth Edwards, Martha Reeves, Harry Enfield, Helen Scales, Admiral Alan West & many more. In addition to all the episodes from the first four series, a previously unbroadcast pilot episode, The Professor of Curiosity, is also included. Running time: 12 hours approx.
Features a selection of 1,342 facts such as: trees sleep at night; Google searches for 'How to put on a condom' peak at 10.28pm; there is no word for time in any Aboriginal language; Scotland has 421 words for snow; Emoji is the fastest growing language in history; and, astronauts wear belts to stop their trousers falling up.
Presents a selection of 1,423 facts to bowl you over. This title includes facts such as: Bees can play football; cholesterol is good for you; camels gave humans the common cold; English has 3,000 words relating to drunkenness; in 1851 all the 436,800 sandwiches sold in London were ham; and, Iceland has more volcanoes than footballers.
Tintin is called Tantan in Japanese because TinTin is pronounced 'Chin chin' and means penis; Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981, it is explicitly illegal in Britain to use a machinegun to kill a hedgehog. 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off will make you look at the universe (and your socks) in an alarming new way.
The ultimate compendium of crisp one-liners, knockout jokes, droll asides and universal truths collected over the years by the creators of QI. 'You know 'that look' women get when they want sex? Me neither.' Steve Martin; 'You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.' Chinese proverb; 'The Beatles are dying in the wrong order.' Victor Lewis-Smith; 'Cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.' Mark Twain; 'Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember: it didn't work for the rabbit.' R.E. Shay; 'If it were not for quotations, conversation between gentlemen would be an endless series of 'what-ho's!'' P. G.Wodehouse
A liff is a familiar object or experience that English has no word for. Afterliff, its long-awaited sequel, corrects this disgraceful oversight by recycling the names found on signposts.This brilliant successor to Douglas Adams' and John Lloyd's 1983 classic The Meaning of Liff features over 900 essential new definitions, including:Anglesey n.Hypothetical object at which a lazy eye is looking.Badlesmeare n.One who dishonestly ticks the 'I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions' box.Caterham n.An overwhelming desire to use the Pope's hat as an oven glove.Clavering ptcpl v.Pretending to text when alone and feeling vulnerable in public.Eworthy adj.Of a person: worth emailing but not worth phoning or meeting.Kanumbra n.The sense that someone is standing behind you.Ljubljana interj.What people say to the dentist on the way out.Loughborough n.The false gusto with which children eat vegetables in adverts.Sorrento n.The thing that goes round and round as a YouTube video loads.Uralla n.A towel used as a bathmat. In 1983, John Lloyd and Douglas Adams authored The Meaning of Liff, a bestselling humour classic which went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. John Lloyd's other books include 1,411 QI Facts To Knock You Sideways and The Book of General Ignorance.
Unveils the changing ways in which journalists report the European Union
Collected by the writers of the BBC show, QI, and authors of the worldwide bestsellers The Book of General Ignorance and 1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off, here is a hilarious and informative selection of the QI team's fun facts.
Provides an edition of Guinness World Records created by a panel of stand-up comedians. This book features contributions from Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Jo Brand, Bill Bailey and other regular guests on the show. It's packed fun games, puzzles, cartoon strips, mini-encyclopedias, how-to diagrams and masses and masses of QI's weird, and more.
John Lloyd argues that the media are now no longer functioning as an inquiring check on the political class. Instead they have become an alternative establishment, dedicated to a theatrical distrust of individual politicians and a furious indifference to the real-life intricacies of world policy-making.
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