Last year Stephen Pile attempted to deliver a daring blow to the success ethic that so pervades Western culture. To his dismay, The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures sold many copies and even became the Sunday Times 'Humour Book of the Year.'Nothing daunted, Stephen returns with a new selection which brings together the very best of his original classic titles - The Book of Heroic Failures and The Return of Heroic Failures.The heartwarmin...

THE SUNDAY TIMES HUMOUR BOOK OF THE YEAR'One of the few books to make me laugh out loud' Sunday ExpressWith Stephen Pile's The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures, celebrate the very best in failure with this all new collection of outrageously funny misadventures from the author of the classic number one bestseller The Book of Heroic Failures.Anyone can be a success, but it takes re...

Did you know… The Sumerians were the first to brew beer, and all the brewers were women? If you didn't - then read on. If you are intrigued by the odd, fascinated by the fantastic or tickled by trivia, then this is the book for you. The Useless Information Society was formed by some of Britain's best-loved journalists, writers and entertainers, including Keith Waterhouse, Richard Littlejohn, Suggs, Noel Botham, Ken Stott and Brian Hitchen. They meet regularly to swap new nuggets of trivia....

This is a compilation of humorous, interesting and hard to believe tales from over thirty years of conducting insurance inspections on unsuspecting and unbelievable businesses. Whoever said, "You can't make this stuff up", had this adventure in mind.

If you have ever attempted to swallow a mattress or have forgotten to remove clothes before ironing them then this book will become a vital survival tool. For the rest of us it is a collection of the oddest, funniest and frankly most worrying instructions taken from genuine products around the world. Manufacturers from Turin to Tokyo seem truly concerned that we know their products may be hot after heating, that we should not place fireworks in our mouths or that we should really not use a...

Truth is often stranger than fiction, as this outstanding collection of urban myths and incredible stories vividly demonstrates. Among them you will find examples of amazing lawsuits, crazy criminals, humiliating misfortune, and embarrassing mistakes. What the stories all share is the capacity to make you wonder at the sheer richness of experience life has to offer - and the breath-taking stupidity of some people!

History is littered with amazing mistakes - from the fatal flight of Icarus to the famous meeting of HMS Titanic and an iceberg, many incredible events have been shaped by a simple mistake.Of course it would be a huge mistake to claim that Most Amazing Mistakes is THE definitive book on blunders. But there are examples of all sorts of them - some funny, others tragic; famous ones, trivial ones; no matter, they all share a common thread. They were events never mean...

'I love these books ... the best books ever. Brilliant' Chris Evans**1,227 QI Facts To Blow Your Socks Off by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin is a buffet groaning with mouth-watering nuggets from QI's first ten years.QI 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 ...

EVERYTHING TO PLAY FOR - A NEW BOOK BY QI ELVES JAMES HARKIN AND ANNA PTASZYNSKI - IS AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOWAn 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 ...

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...

A great collection of questions, answers and facts! Why can't elephants jump? Why don't sheep shrink when they get wet? Divided into sections about animals, people, the law and funny names and places, each part of this hardback book explores little known and often amusing information - Certain to entertain!

Bill Bryson’s first travel book, The Lost Continent, was unanimously acclaimed as one of the funniest books in years. In Neither Here nor There he brings his unique brand of humour to bear on Europe as he shoulders his backpack, keeps a tight hold on his wallet, and journeys from Hammerfest, the northernmost town on the continent, to Istanbul on the cusp of Asia. Fluent in, oh, at least one language, he retraces his travels as a student twenty years before.Whether...