A new indispensable compendium of popular misconceptions, misunderstandings and common mistakes culled from the hit BBC show, QI, hosted by Stephen Fry. QI The Second Book of General Ignorance sets out to show you that a lot of what you think you know is wrong.

Who made the first aeroplane flight? How many legs does an octopus have? How much water should you drink every day? What is the chance of tossing a coin and it landing on heads? What happens if you leave a tooth in a glass of coke overnight? What is house dust mostly made from? What colour are oranges? Who in the world is most likely to kill you? What was the first dishwasher built to do? John Lloyd and John Mitchinson, the brains behind QI, here present a wonderful collection of the most outrageous, fascinating and mind-bending facts, taking on the popular General Ignorance round from BBC1's top rated quiz and the first book in the bestselling series. And whatever your answers to the questions above, you can be sure that everything you think you know is wrong.

Author Biography

John Lloyd has a broadcasting background. As a radio producer he devised The News Quiz and To the Manor Born before moving to television to start Not the Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image, and Blackadder. If pressed, he'd concur with Heraclitus: 'abundance of knowledge does not teach men to be wise.' John Mitchinson is from the world of books. The original Marketing Director of Waterstone's, he became Managing Director of Cassell, where he published The Beatles, Michael Palin and Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. He is fond of quoting American writer Ambrose Bierce: 'knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify.' The BBC One panel show QI first aired on the BBC in September 2003 with John Lloyd producing and John Mitchinson in charge of the research. www.qi.com