QI: The Book of General Ignorance - The Noticeably Stouter Edition

by John Lloyd

  Waterloo, Battle of 1, 2

  Webb, Jane Loudon 1

  weightlessness, and flies 1

  Welles, Orson 1

  Wellington, Duke of 1

  nationality of 1

  whales 1, 2, 3

  see also blue whales;

  sperm whales

  Wharton, Drs 1

  whau tree 1

  whips 1

  whisky, origins of 1

  white matter 1

  Whyte, Major 1

  Wilde, Oscar 1, 2

  Wilhelm II, Kaiser 1

  William, Prince 1

  William the Conqueror, name of 1

  Wilson, Woodrow 1

  wind speeds 1

  Wise Men 1

  witchcraft 1

  Wolfe, Tom 1

  wood

  cannon ball splinters from 1

  lightest 1

  strongest 1

  World Trade Center 1

  World War I 1, 2

  acronyms from 1

  battlecruisers 1, 2

  landing on aircraft carriers 1

  uniforms made of nettles 1

  World War II 1, 2, 3

  carrier pigeons in 1

  carrots as disinformation 1

  Hawker Hurricane in 1

  paperclips as resistance symbol 1

  popularity of Spam 1

  silence regarding 1

  thumbs-up signal 1

  year of its ending 1

  worms 1, 2

  as longest animal 1

  in pearls 1

  survive amputation 1

  survive Shuttle disaster 1

  wrens 1

  wrestling, naked 1

  Wright, Steven 1, 2

  Wyss, father and sons 1

  Yeager, Chuck 1

  yellow fever 1

  Yemen 1

  Yorkshire terrier 1, 2

  zenzizenzizenzic, as failed neologism 1

  Zeus 1

  Zheng He 1

  Zoloft 1

  Zoroastrianism 1

  About John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

  QI first aired on BBC2 in September 2003 with John Lloyd producing and John Mitchinson masterminding the research.

  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.

  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.

  The two Johns both keep hens and drink in the same pub in rural North Oxfordshire.

  Also by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson

  THE BOOK OF ANIMAL IGNORANCE

  ADVANCED BANTER: THE QI BOOK OF QUOTATIONS

  The QI Book of The Dead

  THE QI ‘E’ ANNUAL

  THE QI ‘F’ ANNUAL

  THE QI ‘G’ ANNUAL

  THE QI ‘H’ ANNUAL

  Also by John Lloyd (with Douglas Adams)

  THE MEANING OF LIFF

  THE DEEPER MEANING OF LIFF

  Copyright

  First published in 2006

  by Faber and Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This Noticeably Stouter ebook edition first published in 2010

  All rights reserved

  © QI Ltd, 2006, 2009

  Illustrations © Mr Bingo, 2006, 2009

  The right of QI Ltd to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–27378–2