Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Bah!!, 09 Oct 2008
Un-funny comedy turds straight from the horse's backside of contemporary modern comedy!!

This will remain un-funny until the day I pop my clogs. They should have quit when they are ahead, 8 years ago.

Big haired attempt at comedy for students and drop-out's alike.

Oh for Derek & Clive!!!

booooooooooooooosssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!, 05 Sep 2008
if you are a booshist you'll love this, pure cretive genius. this is similar in places to the first tv series interms of plot and there are a fair few bits that are identical, but it's still a joy to sit and listen to the boosh. just buy it.

Completely Hilarious, 15 May 2008
I got this to keep myself entertained while walking home from work. It's also become a favourite when doing the dishes. It's as good or maybe better as the first TV series and like the TV series is set in the Zoo. I love it because I've listened to it a couple of times in quick succession and there was stuff in the second listening that I'd missed in the first. Would unreservedly recommend.

Pure class, 09 Feb 2008
This is genius from start from to finish. It made me laugh out loud so often I got strange looks from people around me!

Do yourself a favour and get it.

Off my face with happiness.., 06 Feb 2008
This is definatley the best investment i have ever made. I read a few reviews and thought it'd be a sure thing...and you know what it friggin well is!

Most of my working life has been dull and relentless quickly remedied when i return home to get my fill of the Boosh (the DVDs have been in circulation of my DVD player for the past year and half), until i bought this masterpiece.

Now, i sit in work a changed person, quite, focussed (on what im listening too) and chuckling to myself non stop. I love it...in fact it would probably be likely that a few hard core Boosh fans will elect to marry the blinking thing.....so with that i am not going to recommend that you buy it...Im will force you to buy it...or saboo will send you to the crunch!

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Bah!!, 09 Oct 2008
Un-funny comedy turds straight from the horse's backside of contemporary modern comedy!!

This will remain un-funny until the day I pop my clogs. They should have quit when they are ahead, 8 years ago.

Big haired attempt at comedy for students and drop-out's alike.

Oh for Derek & Clive!!!

booooooooooooooosssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!, 05 Sep 2008
if you are a booshist you'll love this, pure cretive genius. this is similar in places to the first tv series interms of plot and there are a fair few bits that are identical, but it's still a joy to sit and listen to the boosh. just buy it.

Completely Hilarious, 15 May 2008
I got this to keep myself entertained while walking home from work. It's also become a favourite when doing the dishes. It's as good or maybe better as the first TV series and like the TV series is set in the Zoo. I love it because I've listened to it a couple of times in quick succession and there was stuff in the second listening that I'd missed in the first. Would unreservedly recommend.

Pure class, 09 Feb 2008
This is genius from start from to finish. It made me laugh out loud so often I got strange looks from people around me!

Do yourself a favour and get it.

Off my face with happiness.., 06 Feb 2008
This is definatley the best investment i have ever made. I read a few reviews and thought it'd be a sure thing...and you know what it friggin well is!

Most of my working life has been dull and relentless quickly remedied when i return home to get my fill of the Boosh (the DVDs have been in circulation of my DVD player for the past year and half), until i bought this masterpiece.

Now, i sit in work a changed person, quite, focussed (on what im listening too) and chuckling to myself non stop. I love it...in fact it would probably be likely that a few hard core Boosh fans will elect to marry the blinking thing.....so with that i am not going to recommend that you buy it...Im will force you to buy it...or saboo will send you to the crunch!

QI - Quite Interesting and quite informative, really!, 14 Oct 2008
As an Australian fan of QI, but still catching up on the publications, I'm a recent reader of a few QI books. The QI Annual brought back meories of the annuals of my childhood, but without the daft makeup tips and silly advice on boys! The QI Annual doesn't aim to be a deadly serious tome full of staid facts and figures, the QI team have done a fabulous job in making the books informative yet fun. I've read the Annual several times, yet I always manage to find something interesting I didn't see earlier. Great for trivia buffs and myth exploders, or anyone who has a fascination for interesting tidbits. A great companion to the show, and a must for all QI Fans.
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!

Amazing, 22 Jan 2008
If you like the series, then you will love the book. It is split in very small pieces of information, which makes it ideal for commuting. I recommend it!

Barely interesting and doesn't transfer, 13 Jan 2008
I love the TV show QI. I'm a fan of most of the guests, have seen several in live gigs or else read a number of their various books, I've got the first series box set, the first DVD game and the Book of General Ignorance. Like I say, I'm a fan.

I'm also a fan of the TV comedy spin-off book - the Goodies books, the Young Ones, Morcambe and Wise, the New Statesman for example - were all grab bags of daft snippets, spoof documents, and other original material. This is genre of book which seemed to have gone out of favour for a while but has come back well lately with Al Murray's Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense and Borat's Touristic Guidings.

The QI Annual is along similar lines. It is stylishly presented - having a nice Beano annual look - and the contents are a more or less original miscellany of sideways-looking snippets, interesting facts and articles.

There are, to my mind, two vital ingredients to the concept and the appeal of QI: one is the spontaneous interplay between the guests and the other is the overturning of received wisdom. The currency of the show - its interesting facts - are usually all the more interesting because they are so little-known and bizarre or because they refute commonly held 'knowledge'. Both of these key ingredients are totally absent from the book.

The guest interplay is of course impossible to reflect in an annual but that needn't have undermined the QI Annual necessarily if the trivia was interesting and humorously communicated, but it's not. It's decidely dull and mundane. Jeremy Clarkson contributes a heavily padded out section, the basic gist of which is that people around the world eat stuff like dogs, guinea pigs and insects - hardly news to anyone. Clive Anderson delivers an essay on the English Elm...that's it...no angle, no punchline...just a dry couple of pages about an inappropriately named species of tree.

There are brief moments of edutainment (the spoof, Boys Own style cartoon adventures of Stephen Fry for example) but essentially this is a very shallow, sketchy sub-Schott book of unfunny, widely known trivia. If the book was not associated with the TV series, and the same content was compiled and attributed to some nobody researcher, then I doubt it would get published.

A very nice Annual for the series, 08 Jan 2008
A very nice read with plenty of toilet humour and interesting facts to impress your friends. To be honest some of he features of members from the show seem to lack any actual input from them at all as they cover random subjects like the Elm tree and What animals you wouldnt normally eat but still a very nice giggle at the end of the day and any fan of the show should own it

Really funny, 18 Dec 2007
I bought this for someone else for Xmas but I've managed to read just about all of it myself. Its really very funny and would appeal to almost anyone. It's an ideal gift, but one you might think about keeping for yourself.

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Bah!!, 09 Oct 2008
Un-funny comedy turds straight from the horse's backside of contemporary modern comedy!!

This will remain un-funny until the day I pop my clogs. They should have quit when they are ahead, 8 years ago.

Big haired attempt at comedy for students and drop-out's alike.

Oh for Derek & Clive!!!

booooooooooooooosssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!, 05 Sep 2008
if you are a booshist you'll love this, pure cretive genius. this is similar in places to the first tv series interms of plot and there are a fair few bits that are identical, but it's still a joy to sit and listen to the boosh. just buy it.

Completely Hilarious, 15 May 2008
I got this to keep myself entertained while walking home from work. It's also become a favourite when doing the dishes. It's as good or maybe better as the first TV series and like the TV series is set in the Zoo. I love it because I've listened to it a couple of times in quick succession and there was stuff in the second listening that I'd missed in the first. Would unreservedly recommend.

Pure class, 09 Feb 2008
This is genius from start from to finish. It made me laugh out loud so often I got strange looks from people around me!

Do yourself a favour and get it.

Off my face with happiness.., 06 Feb 2008
This is definatley the best investment i have ever made. I read a few reviews and thought it'd be a sure thing...and you know what it friggin well is!

Most of my working life has been dull and relentless quickly remedied when i return home to get my fill of the Boosh (the DVDs have been in circulation of my DVD player for the past year and half), until i bought this masterpiece.

Now, i sit in work a changed person, quite, focussed (on what im listening too) and chuckling to myself non stop. I love it...in fact it would probably be likely that a few hard core Boosh fans will elect to marry the blinking thing.....so with that i am not going to recommend that you buy it...Im will force you to buy it...or saboo will send you to the crunch!

QI - Quite Interesting and quite informative, really!, 14 Oct 2008
As an Australian fan of QI, but still catching up on the publications, I'm a recent reader of a few QI books. The QI Annual brought back meories of the annuals of my childhood, but without the daft makeup tips and silly advice on boys! The QI Annual doesn't aim to be a deadly serious tome full of staid facts and figures, the QI team have done a fabulous job in making the books informative yet fun. I've read the Annual several times, yet I always manage to find something interesting I didn't see earlier. Great for trivia buffs and myth exploders, or anyone who has a fascination for interesting tidbits. A great companion to the show, and a must for all QI Fans.
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!

Amazing, 22 Jan 2008
If you like the series, then you will love the book. It is split in very small pieces of information, which makes it ideal for commuting. I recommend it!

Barely interesting and doesn't transfer, 13 Jan 2008
I love the TV show QI. I'm a fan of most of the guests, have seen several in live gigs or else read a number of their various books, I've got the first series box set, the first DVD game and the Book of General Ignorance. Like I say, I'm a fan.

I'm also a fan of the TV comedy spin-off book - the Goodies books, the Young Ones, Morcambe and Wise, the New Statesman for example - were all grab bags of daft snippets, spoof documents, and other original material. This is genre of book which seemed to have gone out of favour for a while but has come back well lately with Al Murray's Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense and Borat's Touristic Guidings.

The QI Annual is along similar lines. It is stylishly presented - having a nice Beano annual look - and the contents are a more or less original miscellany of sideways-looking snippets, interesting facts and articles.

There are, to my mind, two vital ingredients to the concept and the appeal of QI: one is the spontaneous interplay between the guests and the other is the overturning of received wisdom. The currency of the show - its interesting facts - are usually all the more interesting because they are so little-known and bizarre or because they refute commonly held 'knowledge'. Both of these key ingredients are totally absent from the book.

The guest interplay is of course impossible to reflect in an annual but that needn't have undermined the QI Annual necessarily if the trivia was interesting and humorously communicated, but it's not. It's decidely dull and mundane. Jeremy Clarkson contributes a heavily padded out section, the basic gist of which is that people around the world eat stuff like dogs, guinea pigs and insects - hardly news to anyone. Clive Anderson delivers an essay on the English Elm...that's it...no angle, no punchline...just a dry couple of pages about an inappropriately named species of tree.

There are brief moments of edutainment (the spoof, Boys Own style cartoon adventures of Stephen Fry for example) but essentially this is a very shallow, sketchy sub-Schott book of unfunny, widely known trivia. If the book was not associated with the TV series, and the same content was compiled and attributed to some nobody researcher, then I doubt it would get published.

A very nice Annual for the series, 08 Jan 2008
A very nice read with plenty of toilet humour and interesting facts to impress your friends. To be honest some of he features of members from the show seem to lack any actual input from them at all as they cover random subjects like the Elm tree and What animals you wouldnt normally eat but still a very nice giggle at the end of the day and any fan of the show should own it

Really funny, 18 Dec 2007
I bought this for someone else for Xmas but I've managed to read just about all of it myself. Its really very funny and would appeal to almost anyone. It's an ideal gift, but one you might think about keeping for yourself.

Captures The Spirit, 30 Apr 2008
A great little book is this and a must have for fans of the TV show. It's full of useful info that I'm sure would come in handy on an action packed Saturday night in town, and plenty of educational pictures as well. Not too demanding on the old brain cells to read and it's not overlong. An extremely funny book and after you have read it, its the sort that you can keep picking up and look at your favourite bits again. Don't lend it to anyone though, unless they give you a receipt or a returnable deposit, or you won't see it again. Very good overall, a good laff, highly recommended. Also have a look at Al Murray's 'Pub landlord' and 'The Post Box at the Crossroads' by Alan Bates.

Funny, but short, 10 Mar 2008
I read this in about an hour at the weekend. Its incredibly funny, its pure Gene Hunt (mentally I kept hearing Philip Glensiter as I read it) but its also very expensive for what you get. There's about 30 words per page and lots of photos. If you're live, sleep and breath 'life on mars' this is essential fan material, but for the rest of us I'd really recommend you just buy the TV series on DVD... you'll get much better value for money.

What we could never really get away with, 25 Dec 2007
This spin-off is a cracking read. From a professional standpoint,'Life on Mars' in truth was a tad overstated and it depicted a style of Policing that some might have wished for. The story lines were close to the bone though and brought back memories of life even before the seventies. This little gem of a book is a must-have for any fans of the drama series. Buy it and be prepared to listen to the Gospel according to Gene Hunt. If you miss this one, you'll be as disappointed as a Detective who puts his hand in his pocket and finds the warrant is missing!


The Thoughts of Chairman Gene, 28 Oct 2007
This book is a real gem and my title is not accidental. A little bit larger in size than the famous "Little Red Book", the inside cover features a picture of the Guv reminding one of Mao's photo in that earlier production. But whereas the Little Red Book" was more serious in nature, this is a lot more fun as well as also being a key product of its historical era. LIFE ON MARS was a pioneering television series that finally ended some ten years of mediocre television drama and opened the way for other achievements. These "Rules" reflect the unseen presence of "The Guv" prompting the new plainclothesman ("plonks" are naturally not recognized and their presence grudgingly admitted) into an awareness of 1973 police work. Also, the multiple choice tests, with scores by young Chris Skleton, are much more hilarious than any boring multiple choice test for school A levels or immigration tests. It is a great follow up to a great series and a suitable companion volume to the author's co-authored work on Season One of the series. Yes, it is much cheaper on amazon,com. wherever one is in the world and whatever the exchange rate. A definite buy for all real fans of the series suitably aged with faked non-acid free paper with marks of pint glass rims soiling the pages and other items easily identifiable with the Guv. Guy Adams has done a great job.

A must for all fans, 26 Oct 2007
This has to be the funniest book I have read in years, you can actually hear Gene Hunt's voice in your head as you read it! a must for all fans of the show.

also it seems a lot cheaper on Amazon than elsewhere!

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Bah!!, 09 Oct 2008
Un-funny comedy turds straight from the horse's backside of contemporary modern comedy!!

This will remain un-funny until the day I pop my clogs. They should have quit when they are ahead, 8 years ago.

Big haired attempt at comedy for students and drop-out's alike.

Oh for Derek & Clive!!!

booooooooooooooosssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!, 05 Sep 2008
if you are a booshist you'll love this, pure cretive genius. this is similar in places to the first tv series interms of plot and there are a fair few bits that are identical, but it's still a joy to sit and listen to the boosh. just buy it.

Completely Hilarious, 15 May 2008
I got this to keep myself entertained while walking home from work. It's also become a favourite when doing the dishes. It's as good or maybe better as the first TV series and like the TV series is set in the Zoo. I love it because I've listened to it a couple of times in quick succession and there was stuff in the second listening that I'd missed in the first. Would unreservedly recommend.

Pure class, 09 Feb 2008
This is genius from start from to finish. It made me laugh out loud so often I got strange looks from people around me!

Do yourself a favour and get it.

Off my face with happiness.., 06 Feb 2008
This is definatley the best investment i have ever made. I read a few reviews and thought it'd be a sure thing...and you know what it friggin well is!

Most of my working life has been dull and relentless quickly remedied when i return home to get my fill of the Boosh (the DVDs have been in circulation of my DVD player for the past year and half), until i bought this masterpiece.

Now, i sit in work a changed person, quite, focussed (on what im listening too) and chuckling to myself non stop. I love it...in fact it would probably be likely that a few hard core Boosh fans will elect to marry the blinking thing.....so with that i am not going to recommend that you buy it...Im will force you to buy it...or saboo will send you to the crunch!

QI - Quite Interesting and quite informative, really!, 14 Oct 2008
As an Australian fan of QI, but still catching up on the publications, I'm a recent reader of a few QI books. The QI Annual brought back meories of the annuals of my childhood, but without the daft makeup tips and silly advice on boys! The QI Annual doesn't aim to be a deadly serious tome full of staid facts and figures, the QI team have done a fabulous job in making the books informative yet fun. I've read the Annual several times, yet I always manage to find something interesting I didn't see earlier. Great for trivia buffs and myth exploders, or anyone who has a fascination for interesting tidbits. A great companion to the show, and a must for all QI Fans.
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!

Amazing, 22 Jan 2008
If you like the series, then you will love the book. It is split in very small pieces of information, which makes it ideal for commuting. I recommend it!

Barely interesting and doesn't transfer, 13 Jan 2008
I love the TV show QI. I'm a fan of most of the guests, have seen several in live gigs or else read a number of their various books, I've got the first series box set, the first DVD game and the Book of General Ignorance. Like I say, I'm a fan.

I'm also a fan of the TV comedy spin-off book - the Goodies books, the Young Ones, Morcambe and Wise, the New Statesman for example - were all grab bags of daft snippets, spoof documents, and other original material. This is genre of book which seemed to have gone out of favour for a while but has come back well lately with Al Murray's Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense and Borat's Touristic Guidings.

The QI Annual is along similar lines. It is stylishly presented - having a nice Beano annual look - and the contents are a more or less original miscellany of sideways-looking snippets, interesting facts and articles.

There are, to my mind, two vital ingredients to the concept and the appeal of QI: one is the spontaneous interplay between the guests and the other is the overturning of received wisdom. The currency of the show - its interesting facts - are usually all the more interesting because they are so little-known and bizarre or because they refute commonly held 'knowledge'. Both of these key ingredients are totally absent from the book.

The guest interplay is of course impossible to reflect in an annual but that needn't have undermined the QI Annual necessarily if the trivia was interesting and humorously communicated, but it's not. It's decidely dull and mundane. Jeremy Clarkson contributes a heavily padded out section, the basic gist of which is that people around the world eat stuff like dogs, guinea pigs and insects - hardly news to anyone. Clive Anderson delivers an essay on the English Elm...that's it...no angle, no punchline...just a dry couple of pages about an inappropriately named species of tree.

There are brief moments of edutainment (the spoof, Boys Own style cartoon adventures of Stephen Fry for example) but essentially this is a very shallow, sketchy sub-Schott book of unfunny, widely known trivia. If the book was not associated with the TV series, and the same content was compiled and attributed to some nobody researcher, then I doubt it would get published.

A very nice Annual for the series, 08 Jan 2008
A very nice read with plenty of toilet humour and interesting facts to impress your friends. To be honest some of he features of members from the show seem to lack any actual input from them at all as they cover random subjects like the Elm tree and What animals you wouldnt normally eat but still a very nice giggle at the end of the day and any fan of the show should own it

Really funny, 18 Dec 2007
I bought this for someone else for Xmas but I've managed to read just about all of it myself. Its really very funny and would appeal to almost anyone. It's an ideal gift, but one you might think about keeping for yourself.

Captures The Spirit, 30 Apr 2008
A great little book is this and a must have for fans of the TV show. It's full of useful info that I'm sure would come in handy on an action packed Saturday night in town, and plenty of educational pictures as well. Not too demanding on the old brain cells to read and it's not overlong. An extremely funny book and after you have read it, its the sort that you can keep picking up and look at your favourite bits again. Don't lend it to anyone though, unless they give you a receipt or a returnable deposit, or you won't see it again. Very good overall, a good laff, highly recommended. Also have a look at Al Murray's 'Pub landlord' and 'The Post Box at the Crossroads' by Alan Bates.

Funny, but short, 10 Mar 2008
I read this in about an hour at the weekend. Its incredibly funny, its pure Gene Hunt (mentally I kept hearing Philip Glensiter as I read it) but its also very expensive for what you get. There's about 30 words per page and lots of photos. If you're live, sleep and breath 'life on mars' this is essential fan material, but for the rest of us I'd really recommend you just buy the TV series on DVD... you'll get much better value for money.

What we could never really get away with, 25 Dec 2007
This spin-off is a cracking read. From a professional standpoint,'Life on Mars' in truth was a tad overstated and it depicted a style of Policing that some might have wished for. The story lines were close to the bone though and brought back memories of life even before the seventies. This little gem of a book is a must-have for any fans of the drama series. Buy it and be prepared to listen to the Gospel according to Gene Hunt. If you miss this one, you'll be as disappointed as a Detective who puts his hand in his pocket and finds the warrant is missing!


The Thoughts of Chairman Gene, 28 Oct 2007
This book is a real gem and my title is not accidental. A little bit larger in size than the famous "Little Red Book", the inside cover features a picture of the Guv reminding one of Mao's photo in that earlier production. But whereas the Little Red Book" was more serious in nature, this is a lot more fun as well as also being a key product of its historical era. LIFE ON MARS was a pioneering television series that finally ended some ten years of mediocre television drama and opened the way for other achievements. These "Rules" reflect the unseen presence of "The Guv" prompting the new plainclothesman ("plonks" are naturally not recognized and their presence grudgingly admitted) into an awareness of 1973 police work. Also, the multiple choice tests, with scores by young Chris Skleton, are much more hilarious than any boring multiple choice test for school A levels or immigration tests. It is a great follow up to a great series and a suitable companion volume to the author's co-authored work on Season One of the series. Yes, it is much cheaper on amazon,com. wherever one is in the world and whatever the exchange rate. A definite buy for all real fans of the series suitably aged with faked non-acid free paper with marks of pint glass rims soiling the pages and other items easily identifiable with the Guv. Guy Adams has done a great job.

A must for all fans, 26 Oct 2007
This has to be the funniest book I have read in years, you can actually hear Gene Hunt's voice in your head as you read it! a must for all fans of the show.

also it seems a lot cheaper on Amazon than elsewhere!

It's all wrong, I tell you, 15 Apr 2008
The thesis of this book is that much of our `common sense' knowledge is made up of micro-myths, and most of these myths are mistaken. This is quite radical, if you think of it. If so much of the trivia of everyday knowledge is wrong, how much else of what we know for true is false? Maybe that's the appeal of such books, and this is a particularly good one with lots of random factoids I'd never read before, presented in a racy, engaging style. On the other hand it may all be a sad lad obsession (all the authors are male), appealing to the inner Mr Logic in us blokes. Chicken Tikka Massala was invented in Glasgow, Nelson never wore an eye-patch, we are only 60 miles from outer space (upwards), why biros are called bics in France...as my girlfriend kept saying when I informed her of such gems, "Sorry, why would I want to know that?"

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Bah!!, 09 Oct 2008
Un-funny comedy turds straight from the horse's backside of contemporary modern comedy!!

This will remain un-funny until the day I pop my clogs. They should have quit when they are ahead, 8 years ago.

Big haired attempt at comedy for students and drop-out's alike.

Oh for Derek & Clive!!!

booooooooooooooosssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!, 05 Sep 2008
if you are a booshist you'll love this, pure cretive genius. this is similar in places to the first tv series interms of plot and there are a fair few bits that are identical, but it's still a joy to sit and listen to the boosh. just buy it.

Completely Hilarious, 15 May 2008
I got this to keep myself entertained while walking home from work. It's also become a favourite when doing the dishes. It's as good or maybe better as the first TV series and like the TV series is set in the Zoo. I love it because I've listened to it a couple of times in quick succession and there was stuff in the second listening that I'd missed in the first. Would unreservedly recommend.

Pure class, 09 Feb 2008
This is genius from start from to finish. It made me laugh out loud so often I got strange looks from people around me!

Do yourself a favour and get it.

Off my face with happiness.., 06 Feb 2008
This is definatley the best investment i have ever made. I read a few reviews and thought it'd be a sure thing...and you know what it friggin well is!

Most of my working life has been dull and relentless quickly remedied when i return home to get my fill of the Boosh (the DVDs have been in circulation of my DVD player for the past year and half), until i bought this masterpiece.

Now, i sit in work a changed person, quite, focussed (on what im listening too) and chuckling to myself non stop. I love it...in fact it would probably be likely that a few hard core Boosh fans will elect to marry the blinking thing.....so with that i am not going to recommend that you buy it...Im will force you to buy it...or saboo will send you to the crunch!

QI - Quite Interesting and quite informative, really!, 14 Oct 2008
As an Australian fan of QI, but still catching up on the publications, I'm a recent reader of a few QI books. The QI Annual brought back meories of the annuals of my childhood, but without the daft makeup tips and silly advice on boys! The QI Annual doesn't aim to be a deadly serious tome full of staid facts and figures, the QI team have done a fabulous job in making the books informative yet fun. I've read the Annual several times, yet I always manage to find something interesting I didn't see earlier. Great for trivia buffs and myth exploders, or anyone who has a fascination for interesting tidbits. A great companion to the show, and a must for all QI Fans.
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!

Amazing, 22 Jan 2008
If you like the series, then you will love the book. It is split in very small pieces of information, which makes it ideal for commuting. I recommend it!

Barely interesting and doesn't transfer, 13 Jan 2008
I love the TV show QI. I'm a fan of most of the guests, have seen several in live gigs or else read a number of their various books, I've got the first series box set, the first DVD game and the Book of General Ignorance. Like I say, I'm a fan.

I'm also a fan of the TV comedy spin-off book - the Goodies books, the Young Ones, Morcambe and Wise, the New Statesman for example - were all grab bags of daft snippets, spoof documents, and other original material. This is genre of book which seemed to have gone out of favour for a while but has come back well lately with Al Murray's Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense and Borat's Touristic Guidings.

The QI Annual is along similar lines. It is stylishly presented - having a nice Beano annual look - and the contents are a more or less original miscellany of sideways-looking snippets, interesting facts and articles.

There are, to my mind, two vital ingredients to the concept and the appeal of QI: one is the spontaneous interplay between the guests and the other is the overturning of received wisdom. The currency of the show - its interesting facts - are usually all the more interesting because they are so little-known and bizarre or because they refute commonly held 'knowledge'. Both of these key ingredients are totally absent from the book.

The guest interplay is of course impossible to reflect in an annual but that needn't have undermined the QI Annual necessarily if the trivia was interesting and humorously communicated, but it's not. It's decidely dull and mundane. Jeremy Clarkson contributes a heavily padded out section, the basic gist of which is that people around the world eat stuff like dogs, guinea pigs and insects - hardly news to anyone. Clive Anderson delivers an essay on the English Elm...that's it...no angle, no punchline...just a dry couple of pages about an inappropriately named species of tree.

There are brief moments of edutainment (the spoof, Boys Own style cartoon adventures of Stephen Fry for example) but essentially this is a very shallow, sketchy sub-Schott book of unfunny, widely known trivia. If the book was not associated with the TV series, and the same content was compiled and attributed to some nobody researcher, then I doubt it would get published.

A very nice Annual for the series, 08 Jan 2008
A very nice read with plenty of toilet humour and interesting facts to impress your friends. To be honest some of he features of members from the show seem to lack any actual input from them at all as they cover random subjects like the Elm tree and What animals you wouldnt normally eat but still a very nice giggle at the end of the day and any fan of the show should own it

Really funny, 18 Dec 2007
I bought this for someone else for Xmas but I've managed to read just about all of it myself. Its really very funny and would appeal to almost anyone. It's an ideal gift, but one you might think about keeping for yourself.

Captures The Spirit, 30 Apr 2008
A great little book is this and a must have for fans of the TV show. It's full of useful info that I'm sure would come in handy on an action packed Saturday night in town, and plenty of educational pictures as well. Not too demanding on the old brain cells to read and it's not overlong. An extremely funny book and after you have read it, its the sort that you can keep picking up and look at your favourite bits again. Don't lend it to anyone though, unless they give you a receipt or a returnable deposit, or you won't see it again. Very good overall, a good laff, highly recommended. Also have a look at Al Murray's 'Pub landlord' and 'The Post Box at the Crossroads' by Alan Bates.

Funny, but short, 10 Mar 2008
I read this in about an hour at the weekend. Its incredibly funny, its pure Gene Hunt (mentally I kept hearing Philip Glensiter as I read it) but its also very expensive for what you get. There's about 30 words per page and lots of photos. If you're live, sleep and breath 'life on mars' this is essential fan material, but for the rest of us I'd really recommend you just buy the TV series on DVD... you'll get much better value for money.

What we could never really get away with, 25 Dec 2007
This spin-off is a cracking read. From a professional standpoint,'Life on Mars' in truth was a tad overstated and it depicted a style of Policing that some might have wished for. The story lines were close to the bone though and brought back memories of life even before the seventies. This little gem of a book is a must-have for any fans of the drama series. Buy it and be prepared to listen to the Gospel according to Gene Hunt. If you miss this one, you'll be as disappointed as a Detective who puts his hand in his pocket and finds the warrant is missing!


The Thoughts of Chairman Gene, 28 Oct 2007
This book is a real gem and my title is not accidental. A little bit larger in size than the famous "Little Red Book", the inside cover features a picture of the Guv reminding one of Mao's photo in that earlier production. But whereas the Little Red Book" was more serious in nature, this is a lot more fun as well as also being a key product of its historical era. LIFE ON MARS was a pioneering television series that finally ended some ten years of mediocre television drama and opened the way for other achievements. These "Rules" reflect the unseen presence of "The Guv" prompting the new plainclothesman ("plonks" are naturally not recognized and their presence grudgingly admitted) into an awareness of 1973 police work. Also, the multiple choice tests, with scores by young Chris Skleton, are much more hilarious than any boring multiple choice test for school A levels or immigration tests. It is a great follow up to a great series and a suitable companion volume to the author's co-authored work on Season One of the series. Yes, it is much cheaper on amazon,com. wherever one is in the world and whatever the exchange rate. A definite buy for all real fans of the series suitably aged with faked non-acid free paper with marks of pint glass rims soiling the pages and other items easily identifiable with the Guv. Guy Adams has done a great job.

A must for all fans, 26 Oct 2007
This has to be the funniest book I have read in years, you can actually hear Gene Hunt's voice in your head as you read it! a must for all fans of the show.

also it seems a lot cheaper on Amazon than elsewhere!

It's all wrong, I tell you, 15 Apr 2008
The thesis of this book is that much of our `common sense' knowledge is made up of micro-myths, and most of these myths are mistaken. This is quite radical, if you think of it. If so much of the trivia of everyday knowledge is wrong, how much else of what we know for true is false? Maybe that's the appeal of such books, and this is a particularly good one with lots of random factoids I'd never read before, presented in a racy, engaging style. On the other hand it may all be a sad lad obsession (all the authors are male), appealing to the inner Mr Logic in us blokes. Chicken Tikka Massala was invented in Glasgow, Nelson never wore an eye-patch, we are only 60 miles from outer space (upwards), why biros are called bics in France...as my girlfriend kept saying when I informed her of such gems, "Sorry, why would I want to know that?"

Superb, 01 Jul 2008
This book is great it shows pictures and gives information about the judges, celebritys and professionals from 2007.

An absolute must for Strictly fans, 10 Nov 2007
I'm mad about Strictly Come Dancing and I love this book. I've got last year's 'Official Guide', and was worried that there might be some overlap - but there isn't! It's all completely new. It has interviews with all the judges, the show's stylist, the hair and make-up person, all the previous winners and all this year's celebs. Plus, there's a complete guide to all the past series, with photos of highlights, lowlights, tears, tantrums and triumphs. Also, Erin Boag and Karen Hardy put you through their own keep fit routine based on the dances. It's really easy to follow, and fun to do. I'm hoping I'll look like them if I do it often enough!
There's masses more and it's packed with photos. You get a fascinating glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, but also blown away by the glamour and glitz of the show itself. Highly recommended!

Why the change?, 08 Nov 2007
Much prefer the previous books,very disappointed that there are no biography pages of the professionals this year or pictures,they do such a fantastic job. Also the ballroom and latin content has disappeared and been replaced by fitness which is not really Strictly Come Dancing!! Please keep the original format its much better.

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written.
All in all, its an OK read with a few funny bits, but it gets a bit repeatitive and it lacks the creativity and whit that you'd expect from MTW.

Scenes we'd like to see, 10 Oct 2008
This book is like one big Scenes we would like to see. But it is still very funny!! Would rate to all Mock The Week fans!

Very funny & good to delve into , 10 Oct 2008
Most of this book is pretty funny, but in places it starts just looking like lists based on a few ideas. There's a lot of good material, though. Recommended.

Excellent - but requires a bit of imagination, 04 Sep 2008
As a fan of the panel show, I was initially disappointed when I picked up this book: it's written by none of the show's regulars (Frankie, Hugh, Andy, Russell et al), and I feared that the book wouldn't be as funny as I hoped it would be.

I needn't have worried. This book is achingly funny and a great gift. BUT! And here's the key thing: it does require a bit of imagination, I think. As the book is basically one big 'Scenes We'd Like To See' gag reel in book form, you need to picture the Mock The Week gang gathered around the press pit, saying the quotes you read in the book. When you do, it's hilarious.

Of course, by that same token, this book may go over the heads of those who've never seen Mock The Week (but then again, why ever not?!).

If you love the show and can mentally picture you favourite comedians in the 'Press Pit', you'll be right at home with this treat.

Bah!!, 09 Oct 2008
Un-funny comedy turds straight from the horse's backside of contemporary modern comedy!!

This will remain un-funny until the day I pop my clogs. They should have quit when they are ahead, 8 years ago.

Big haired attempt at comedy for students and drop-out's alike.

Oh for Derek & Clive!!!

booooooooooooooosssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!, 05 Sep 2008
if you are a booshist you'll love this, pure cretive genius. this is similar in places to the first tv series interms of plot and there are a fair few bits that are identical, but it's still a joy to sit and listen to the boosh. just buy it.

Completely Hilarious, 15 May 2008
I got this to keep myself entertained while walking home from work. It's also become a favourite when doing the dishes. It's as good or maybe better as the first TV series and like the TV series is set in the Zoo. I love it because I've listened to it a couple of times in quick succession and there was stuff in the second listening that I'd missed in the first. Would unreservedly recommend.

Pure class, 09 Feb 2008
This is genius from start from to finish. It made me laugh out loud so often I got strange looks from people around me!

Do yourself a favour and get it.

Off my face with happiness.., 06 Feb 2008
This is definatley the best investment i have ever made. I read a few reviews and thought it'd be a sure thing...and you know what it friggin well is!

Most of my working life has been dull and relentless quickly remedied when i return home to get my fill of the Boosh (the DVDs have been in circulation of my DVD player for the past year and half), until i bought this masterpiece.

Now, i sit in work a changed person, quite, focussed (on what im listening too) and chuckling to myself non stop. I love it...in fact it would probably be likely that a few hard core Boosh fans will elect to marry the blinking thing.....so with that i am not going to recommend that you buy it...Im will force you to buy it...or saboo will send you to the crunch!

QI - Quite Interesting and quite informative, really!, 14 Oct 2008
As an Australian fan of QI, but still catching up on the publications, I'm a recent reader of a few QI books. The QI Annual brought back meories of the annuals of my childhood, but without the daft makeup tips and silly advice on boys! The QI Annual doesn't aim to be a deadly serious tome full of staid facts and figures, the QI team have done a fabulous job in making the books informative yet fun. I've read the Annual several times, yet I always manage to find something interesting I didn't see earlier. Great for trivia buffs and myth exploders, or anyone who has a fascination for interesting tidbits. A great companion to the show, and a must for all QI Fans.
I already have the QI Annual 2009 on pre-order!

Amazing, 22 Jan 2008
If you like the series, then you will love the book. It is split in very small pieces of information, which makes it ideal for commuting. I recommend it!

Barely interesting and doesn't transfer, 13 Jan 2008
I love the TV show QI. I'm a fan of most of the guests, have seen several in live gigs or else read a number of their various books, I've got the first series box set, the first DVD game and the Book of General Ignorance. Like I say, I'm a fan.

I'm also a fan of the TV comedy spin-off book - the Goodies books, the Young Ones, Morcambe and Wise, the New Statesman for example - were all grab bags of daft snippets, spoof documents, and other original material. This is genre of book which seemed to have gone out of favour for a while but has come back well lately with Al Murray's Pub Landlord's Book of British Common Sense and Borat's Touristic Guidings.

The QI Annual is along similar lines. It is stylishly presented - having a nice Beano annual look - and the contents are a more or less original miscellany of sideways-looking snippets, interesting facts and articles.

There are, to my mind, two vital ingredients to the concept and the appeal of QI: one is the spontaneous interplay between the guests and the other is the overturning of received wisdom. The currency of the show - its interesting facts - are usually all the more interesting because they are so little-known and bizarre or because they refute commonly held 'knowledge'. Both of these key ingredients are totally absent from the book.

The guest interplay is of course impossible to reflect in an annual but that needn't have undermined the QI Annual necessarily if the trivia was interesting and humorously communicated, but it's not. It's decidely dull and mundane. Jeremy Clarkson contributes a heavily padded out section, the basic gist of which is that people around the world eat stuff like dogs, guinea pigs and insects - hardly news to anyone. Clive Anderson delivers an essay on the English Elm...that's it...no angle, no punchline...just a dry couple of pages about an inappropriately named species of tree.

There are brief moments of edutainment (the spoof, Boys Own style cartoon adventures of Stephen Fry for example) but essentially this is a very shallow, sketchy sub-Schott book of unfunny, widely known trivia. If the book was not associated with the TV series, and the same content was compiled and attributed to some nobody researcher, then I doubt it would get published.

A very nice Annual for the series, 08 Jan 2008
A very nice read with plenty of toilet humour and interesting facts to impress your friends. To be honest some of he features of members from the show seem to lack any actual input from them at all as they cover random subjects like the Elm tree and What animals you wouldnt normally eat but still a very nice giggle at the end of the day and any fan of the show should own it

Really funny, 18 Dec 2007
I bought this for someone else for Xmas but I've managed to read just about all of it myself. Its really very funny and would appeal to almost anyone. It's an ideal gift, but one you might think about keeping for yourself.

Captures The Spirit, 30 Apr 2008
A great little book is this and a must have for fans of the TV show. It's full of useful info that I'm sure would come in handy on an action packed Saturday night in town, and plenty of educational pictures as well. Not too demanding on the old brain cells to read and it's not overlong. An extremely funny book and after you have read it, its the sort that you can keep picking up and look at your favourite bits again. Don't lend it to anyone though, unless they give you a receipt or a returnable deposit, or you won't see it again. Very good overall, a good laff, highly recommended. Also have a look at Al Murray's 'Pub landlord' and 'The Post Box at the Crossroads' by Alan Bates.

Funny, but short, 10 Mar 2008
I read this in about an hour at the weekend. Its incredibly funny, its pure Gene Hunt (mentally I kept hearing Philip Glensiter as I read it) but its also very expensive for what you get. There's about 30 words per page and lots of photos. If you're live, sleep and breath 'life on mars' this is essential fan material, but for the rest of us I'd really recommend you just buy the TV series on DVD... you'll get much better value for money.

What we could never really get away with, 25 Dec 2007
This spin-off is a cracking read. From a professional standpoint,'Life on Mars' in truth was a tad overstated and it depicted a style of Policing that some might have wished for. The story lines were close to the bone though and brought back memories of life even before the seventies. This little gem of a book is a must-have for any fans of the drama series. Buy it and be prepared to listen to the Gospel according to Gene Hunt. If you miss this one, you'll be as disappointed as a Detective who puts his hand in his pocket and finds the warrant is missing!


The Thoughts of Chairman Gene, 28 Oct 2007
This book is a real gem and my title is not accidental. A little bit larger in size than the famous "Little Red Book", the inside cover features a picture of the Guv reminding one of Mao's photo in that earlier production. But whereas the Little Red Book" was more serious in nature, this is a lot more fun as well as also being a key product of its historical era. LIFE ON MARS was a pioneering television series that finally ended some ten years of mediocre television drama and opened the way for other achievements. These "Rules" reflect the unseen presence of "The Guv" prompting the new plainclothesman ("plonks" are naturally not recognized and their presence grudgingly admitted) into an awareness of 1973 police work. Also, the multiple choice tests, with scores by young Chris Skleton, are much more hilarious than any boring multiple choice test for school A levels or immigration tests. It is a great follow up to a great series and a suitable companion volume to the author's co-authored work on Season One of the series. Yes, it is much cheaper on amazon,com. wherever one is in the world and whatever the exchange rate. A definite buy for all real fans of the series suitably aged with faked non-acid free paper with marks of pint glass rims soiling the pages and other items easily identifiable with the Guv. Guy Adams has done a great job.

A must for all fans, 26 Oct 2007
This has to be the funniest book I have read in years, you can actually hear Gene Hunt's voice in your head as you read it! a must for all fans of the show.

also it seems a lot cheaper on Amazon than elsewhere!

It's all wrong, I tell you, 15 Apr 2008
The thesis of this book is that much of our `common sense' knowledge is made up of micro-myths, and most of these myths are mistaken. This is quite radical, if you think of it. If so much of the trivia of everyday knowledge is wrong, how much else of what we know for true is false? Maybe that's the appeal of such books, and this is a particularly good one with lots of random factoids I'd never read before, presented in a racy, engaging style. On the other hand it may all be a sad lad obsession (all the authors are male), appealing to the inner Mr Logic in us blokes. Chicken Tikka Massala was invented in Glasgow, Nelson never wore an eye-patch, we are only 60 miles from outer space (upwards), why biros are called bics in France...as my girlfriend kept saying when I informed her of such gems, "Sorry, why would I want to know that?"

Superb, 01 Jul 2008
This book is great it shows pictures and gives information about the judges, celebritys and professionals from 2007.

An absolute must for Strictly fans, 10 Nov 2007
I'm mad about Strictly Come Dancing and I love this book. I've got last year's 'Official Guide', and was worried that there might be some overlap - but there isn't! It's all completely new. It has interviews with all the judges, the show's stylist, the hair and make-up person, all the previous winners and all this year's celebs. Plus, there's a complete guide to all the past series, with photos of highlights, lowlights, tears, tantrums and triumphs. Also, Erin Boag and Karen Hardy put you through their own keep fit routine based on the dances. It's really easy to follow, and fun to do. I'm hoping I'll look like them if I do it often enough!
There's masses more and it's packed with photos. You get a fascinating glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, but also blown away by the glamour and glitz of the show itself. Highly recommended!

Why the change?, 08 Nov 2007
Much prefer the previous books,very disappointed that there are no biography pages of the professionals this year or pictures,they do such a fantastic job. Also the ballroom and latin content has disappeared and been replaced by fitness which is not really Strictly Come Dancing!! Please keep the original format its much better.

Excellent!, 01 May 2008
Great book to add to your collection. In fact the content of the book is the same one used by Simpsons animators as a guide. This has been refined for publications, as I have seen the actual 'guide' documents which is slightly scruffy but never the less has the same principle/drawings.

Best Cartoon Drawing Book Ever!!, 12 Sep 2007
A must have book for all budding artists, this book contains step by step guides on how to draw all your favorite simpsons charicters. From mr Burns to comic book guy and from chief Wiggum to grounds keeper Willie I strongly recomend it to all!!!

Brilliant Book!, 22 Aug 2007
I am a massive Simpson fan as well as a cartoonist, and this book has proved invaluable to me.

I used to have the old thin book from years ago that showed you the basics of drawing the characters, but this is a far more in depth approach and shows you how to draw characters from different angles and in different settings and outfits. It also goes beyond the Simpsons family and shows you how to draw a select few of the other Springfield citizens.

You don't have to be excellent at drawing to benefit from the instructions, because with each and every character you are first shown the very basics, before moving onto the more advanced stages step by step so you aren't left behind.

If you're a Simpsons fan but not really into drawing, there's still loads for you here, such as insider info from the creators and animators. The book is beautifully presented, and I recommend getting this hardback copy rather than the paperback because several pages include flip down tracing paper sheets so you can see how The Simpsons go from weird line sketches to the finished article, and they're easier to see in the hardback. As always the pictures are of great quality, printed on high quality paper, and the whole thing is just fantastic!

If you buy this awesome book, I doubt you'll be disappointed!

Interesting. Amusing. Ideal for dipping into., 12 Oct 2008
This book is simply a collection of amusing quotations from the famous - and the not so famous. It doesn't really appear to have anything more to do with QI than having the series name on the cover. It's a great book for dipping into but hardly something you'll want to tirelessly read from cover to cover. Ideal as a bathroom reader or to amuse others with.

And I quote..., 10 Oct 2008
Ever stumbled a cross a quote or saying that rang so true, you've decided to write it down and tuck in a pocket for future reference? Well, this book's full of them.
Quotes are powerful things. They can make us happy, sad, laugh, cry, can comfort us, annoy us...the list goes on. As such, this book is a rollercoaster of opinions and witticisms, some of which are infamous, some of which are lesser known.
It's difficult to review such a book because...well...it's a bit of a nothingness. It is, quite simply, a collection of quotes from famous people, A-Z by subject. That's it. The overall product feels rushed, too - on my first thumb through, I noticed 3 spelling errors! - and I don't appreciate having the QI brand slapped on it. A foreword by Fry it may have, but it has very little to do with the show.
That said, is does what it's meant to do, and it does it well - it's a big volume, the kind that warrants dipping into, despite perhaps not seeming to be great value at first, I can imagine this book lasting years, always worth opening up to find a quote to inspire (or infuriate) you.

Good, but not great., 14 Oct 2008
As a huge fan of Mock the Week, I was looking forward to seeing what this book had to offer, and to be fair it's not bad. There's a few funny lines, but it's a million miles away from the dry wit that features on the TV show.
It's obvious that the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'brien, Hugh Dennis and the legendary Frankie Boyle were nowhere near the room where this was written. <