VitQ BOOK PUBLISHED SHOCK!

The fat book partly based on this blog is now available. Vitamin Q - a temple of trivia lists and curious words is published by Chambers Harrap. It is available via all the usual channels (and bookshops in the UK very soon). You can also order it (at a discount price, with inexpensive postage to any country) directly from the publisher by clicking here. Doing this means more pennies will eventually come to me. You can win a free copy by trying the competition at that link too (scroll down the page). Can I just mention what a fabulous Christmas gift it makes for teenage boys, Scrabble-playing aunts, trendy sisters, pedantic dads and any old orang utan that can read?

Over a quarter of VitQ the book is brand new material. Much of the rest is improved, embellished and, erm, corrected. Here is a list (sigh) of some of the items exclusive to the book:

1 punk rock pseudonyms
2 fictional eskimos
3 showbiz nicknames
4 sausage dishes of planet Earth
5 state nicknames
6 fool’s errands (sky hooks, glass hammers etc)
7 aviatresses’ adventures
8 fine old Scots words like bern-windlin (‘a kiss given in the corner of a barn‘)
9 sweeties of yesteryear
10 beautiful flower names
11 bizarre human ailments
12 famous Uncles
13 dance crazes of the last 50 years
14 more Meaning of Liff-style definitions
15 more spoof Latin phrases
16 obsolete professions (such as slubber doffer and cat’s meat man)
17 proverbs and quotes on cats
18 strange psychological syndromes
19 things that have been hidden
20 how to say goodbye