The Importance of Being Trivial: In Search of the Perfect Fact

Description

An entertaining and trivia-filled account of our obsession with trivia If you're intrigued by the fact that Jack the Ripper was left-handed, or that Heinz ketchup flows at 0.7 miles per day - and, more importantly, intrigued by why you're intrigued - then this book is required reading. Convinced that our love of trivia must reveal something truly important about us, Mark Mason sets out to discover what that something is. And, in the process, he asks the fundamental questions that keep all trivialists awake at night- Why is it so difficult to forget that Keith Richards was a choirboy at the Queen's coronation when it's so hard to remember what we did last Thursday? Are men more obsessed with trivia than women? Can it be proved that house flies hum in the key of F? Can anything ever really be proved? And the biggest question of them all- is there a perfect fact, and if so what is it?

Mark Mason's previous non-fiction includes The Bluffer's Guide To Football and The Bluffer's Guide To Bond. He is also the author of three novels, and has written for most British national newspapers (though never about anything too heavy), and magazines from the Spectator to Four Four Two.

Mason's personal odyssey has an irresistibly hapless charm. * Guardian * ... a bridge back to proper reading for those who have become unhealthily addicted to the likes of "Steve Wright's Further Factoids". * Sunday Telegraph * I loved this book - this is quality trivia. * Richard and Judy * Every pub should have one. * BBC Radio 3 * ...a collection of joyously irrelevant titbits of information * Sunday Herald *