The Second Book of General Ignorance, By John Lloyd & John Mitchinson

There had to be a second QI spin-off, if only because the first sold over 1.2m. Fortunately, there remain plenty of misapprehensions on which the know-all authors can put us right.

At 5ft 6in, Napoleon topped the average Frenchman by two inches. After the Pacific, the British government planned an atomic test in Skipsea, Yorkshire.

Interesting stuff, though the superiority of tone may irritate. It is gratifying, therefore, to point out a bloomer on page 5. "Each arm on an octopus has two rows of suckers." Wrong. Most octopuses caught in UK waters only have one row.