Where the book was from:- Gift from GB
ISBN: - 9780224086233
Pages: - 395pp
Genre: - Non fiction; statistics; humour; general knowledge.
Location:- Relates to the UK
How I came across it: - Browsing in Linghams bookshop
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- A brilliant, fascinating miscellanea which, with a degree of tongue-in-cheek use of statistics, gives a wonderful insight into life in Britain today.
General comments:-
A human lifespan is, on average, seventy-nine years. in that time a person living in the UK will eat on average 479 fish fingers, take 7,163 baths, shed 121 pints of tears, dream 104,390 dreams, g through 1,033 chickens, buy 733 balloons and spend £658 on Christmas crackers.
I think the average person will love this book even if it is only to find out that the Tooth Fairy has an annual turnover of £20 million.
Quotations:-
“There seems to be a point where birthdays change from being a celebration of life top being a celebration of not being dead.”
“The lack of oxygen in your venous blood turns it a dark blue colour. You will never see this colour because the instant you cut yourself, the oxygen in the air turns the blood red again.”
“You replace your entire skin every two weeks. In a lifetime you get through 2,064 suits of skin.”
“There is no perfume company developing an aftershave with the great smell of Camembert.” (Oh, how I agree. I really abhor the smell of Camembert and insist that when we have it in the fridge it is suitably wrapped to avoid polluting the atmosphere.)
“One thing all your ancestors have in common is that they had sex. You are the result of 3.8 billion years of winning a mate, having sex with them and successfully raising at least one child who was able to do the same. ... You might want to explain to your date that the desire you feel rises from a feeling of responsibility top your ancestors to forge the next link of the chain with the best possible partner. You should also tell this lucky individual that your ancestors will reward both of you by flooding your brains with dopamine and endorphins at the crucial moment.”
“There was a frenzy of military mobilisation provoked by Mr Hitler unexpectedly starting the war early. |amid the chaos, someone thought to bring the vast quantities of tea stored in warehouses around the London docks under government control. In the dark years ahead, tea would be vital. Just four days after the war began, the national tea stocks were dispersed to secret rural locations all over the country lest the Luftwaffe reduce Britain’s morale to a burning pile of leaves.”
AUTHOR Notes:- Tadg Farrington is a writer living in Scotland – and that is all the book jacket tells us! A little research says he is an independent editor and writer, lives in Edinburgh and was at Aberdeen University from 1986 to 1991which suggests he was born around 1968.
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