James Harkin – författare

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?

'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris EvansThis is an astonishing trove of the strangest, funniest, and most improbable tidbits of knowledge from the clever lot at the hugely popular BBC quiz show QI.The sock-blasting, jaw-dropping, side-swiping phenomenon that is QI serves up a sparkling new selection of 1,342 facts to leave you flabbergasted.Did you know that: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.Astronauts wear belts to stop their trousers falling up.The name Donald means 'ruler of the world'.Tanks are exempt from London's Congestion charge.The world's only Cornish pasty museum is in Mexico.When you blush so does the lining of your stomach.A group of unicorns is called a blessing.If there are any facts you don't believe, or if you want to know more about them, all the sources can be found on www.qi.com

SHORTLISTED FOR THE CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS'Top Bins! A personal best, a lap record and a hole in one for when rain has stopped play.' ALAN DAVIES'The trivia book of the season . . . magnificent.' SPECTATORDid you know that Henry VIII owned the first pair of football boots? Or that David Attenborough is responsible for yellow tennis balls?A Load of Old Balls is the curious story of us and sport. It's about our mind-blowingly determined attempts to be the fastest, the strongest, the most skilful. In this endlessly entertaining tale of play and belonging, astonishing violence and jaw-dropping cheating, we learn what led ancient Egyptian athletes to have their spleens removed and discover why Michael Palin was disqualified from a conker tournament. Crossing millennia, continents and cultures, Harkin and Ptaszynski - the brainy researchers for BBC's QI and co-hosts of No Such Thing As A Fish -show us sport as we've never seen it before.**Published in hardback as Everything to Play For.**For more from the team behind QI's hit TV show, check out the QI FACTS series of books, @qikipedia, their weekly podcast at nosuchthingasafish.com or visit qi.com.

At the end of the first decade of the new millennium, we communicate in ways that were once unimaginable. This books shows how we got there, where we are going and what the new technology is doing to us. Once there was no text messaging. No email and no social network sites like Facebook, Bebo and MySpace. Cyburbia describes how the architecture of our digital lives was built over seventy years. This brilliant narrative shows how a concept that began with the need to shoot down German bombers has evolved to govern almost everything ? from our lives online to modern films like Memento and 21 Grams, from plays and TV series like The Wire to military strategy. 'A swift-moving history. It is a brave step in thinking about the mess we may have all got ourselves into' Nicholas Blincoe, DAILY TELEGRAPH

As high street and main street businesses continue to suffer, there's a new rule in business: forget about the general audience and instead stake out an identifiable niche.Woolworths suffered from a lack of identity and found that low quality and low price wasn't enough; General Motors crashed as motorists failed to distinguish between cars in their range. Yet HBO, Moleskine and specialist media like The Economist have all succeeded by building their authority over narrow areas of expertise and cultivating a passionate following - and their profits have mushroomed. Fascinating and thought-provoking, Niche is a superb examination of how innovation and profitability are moving to a series of tightly defined but globally scattered niches, bound together by the reach of the net.

On 19 August 2014, a member of the jihadist rebel group known as ISIS uploaded a video to YouTube. Entitled 'Message to America', the clip depicted the final moments of the life of kidnapped American journalist James Foley - and the gruesome aftermath of his beheading at the hands of a masked executioner. Foley's murder - and the other choreographed killings that would follow - captured the world's attention, and Islamic State's campaign of kidnapping exploded into regional war.Based on three years of on-the-ground reporting from every side of the Syrian conflict, Hunting Season is James Harkin's quest to uncover the truth about how and why Islamic State came to target Western hostages, who was behind it and why almost no one outside a small group of people knew anything about it until it was too late. He reveals how the campaign of kidnapping and the development of Islamic State were joined at the hip from the beginning. The book is an utterly absorbing account of the world's newest and most powerful terror franchise and what it means for modern war.

'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris EvansQI is the smartest comedy show on British television, but few people know that we're also a major legal hit in Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Africa and an illegal one on BitTorrent. We also write books and newspaper columns; run some (frankly thriving, if we do say so ourselves) social media pages; and some of us appear on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Showon BBC Radio 2 every week to answer your questions. At the core of what we do is the astonishing fact - painstakingly researched and distilled to a brilliant and shocking clarity. In Einstein's words: 'Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler.'Did you know that: Cows moo in regional accents.The entire internet weighs less than a grain of sand.Tintin is called Tantan in Japanese because TinTin is pronounced 'Chin chin' and means penis.The water in the mouth of a blue whale weighs more than its body.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.

EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR - A NEW BOOK BY QI ELVES JAMES HARKIN AND ANNA PTASZYNSKI - IS AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris Evans1,399 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin is packed with even more fascinating facts.Whilst you're bending over to grab your socks following the succes of 1,227 QI Facts to Blow Your Socks Off, don't forget pick up your jaw as the QI team returns with a fresh stack of facts to astonish and enlighten.Did you know that:Pigs suffer from anorexia.It is impossible to whistle in a spacesuit.The first computer mouse was made of wood.Rugby School's first official rugby kit in 1871 included a bow tie.Lord Kitchener had four spaniels called Shot, Bang, Miss and Damn.J. K Rowling has no middle name.If there are any facts you don't believe, or if you want to know more about them, all the sources can be found on QI's website.

'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris EvansThe sixth book in the bestselling series brings bizarre, astonishing, conversation-starting facts from the clever clogs at the hugely popular BBC quiz show QI. Did you know that:Iceland imports ice cubes.A group of ladybirds is called a loveliness.It is illegal in Saudi Arabia to name a child Sandi.Eight billion particles of fog can fit into a teaspoon.People who read books live longer than people who don't.Prince Philip was born on a kitchen table in Corfu.No human beings have ever had sex in space.Netfiix's biggest competitor is sleep.Mice sigh up to 40 times an hour.