Book details

Book description

In 1841 John Timbs wrote a book called Popular Errors Explained. It went on - with Timbs' other great series 'Curiosities of ...' - to become one of the great popular books of the 19th century, running into many editions and selling hundreds of thousands of copies. Some say the popularity of his one hundred and fifty volumes led him to outsell a certain Mr Dickens.

Stewart McCartney, under the Timb's title of Popular Errors Explained has created a new book, capturing the zeal and enthusiasm of the original, to be 'agreeable, by way of abstract and anecdote so as to become an advantageous and amusing guest at any intellectual fireside.'

The book has completely new material - around 200 or so 'popular errors' from science and literature, history, sport, popular culture and so on. Each entry will have that eyebrow raising 'I didn't know that!' or 'Surely that cannot be true!' feel. Every one will explode a commonly held misbelief.

Stewart McCartney is a strange and wonderful fellow. A legend in television he has the most extraordinary job. He was a supremely successful player in the quiz leagues around Yorkshire and had made numerous TV and radio appearances with his team and as an individual when he was asked if he wanted to be a question setter and verifier on Brain of Britain and Mastermind (having been a competitor on both). He has gone on to work on a plethora of other quizzes, game shows and comedies, including most recently Weakest Link, The Krypton Factor , The Unbelievable Truth and Round Britain Quiz .