Author:Mark Hanks
Usefully Useless is a gloriously diverse volume dedicated to the most engrossing trivia in the world.
Guaranteed to excite the curiosity and amuse, its pages are filled with the sort of remarkable information you would never learn, but will be overjoyed to discover. Each fact isirresistibly fun and fascinating - the essence of anecdote and dinner-party conversation that is essential in the adult world - and, above all, usefully useless.
Guaranteed to improve your mind, Usefully Useless contains a wealth of miscellany on a vast range of topics, including Literature, Geography, Food, Science, the Natural World, Sport and Politics - from the export of frogs' legs to the longest Monopoly game completed in the bath. Usefully Useless provides answers to such eternal questions as:
What was Margaret Thatcher's favourite sitcom?
Which British league football team's name has no letters that one could colour in with a pen?
How many calories do you consume when you lick a stamp?
What was the original colour of Coca-Cola?
Which key do toilets flush in?
Find out these answers and many, many more in Usefully Useless, the essential guide to the facts you never thought you'd need to know.
Gareth May’s follow-up to 150 Things Every Man Should Know revolves around travel tips for the adventurous chap abroad. So, should you be getting married by an Elvis lookalike in Vegas or climbing Kilimanjaro or even looking to sample snake blood in Cambodia, this is your essential manual
—— The ListWith travelling advice and trustworthy recommendations, Man of the World should be the first thing in your suitcase this summer
—— Shortlist magazineExquisitely written… A compelling snapshot of the groundbreaking designer – and an even more fascinating insight into Audrey, a paragon of mid-20th-century New York style.
—— ObserverIgnoring Schiaparelli is to ignore fashion and art. Soon everyone will be reminded who Schiap is.
—— Ines de la Fressange , author of Parisian ChicNothing short of delicious... Sharp-eyed as it is wickedly funny... Witty, tender and vividly nostalgic.
—— KirkusThought-provoking and delightful. I love the way Volk transforms the apparently frivolous and, often, outmoded details of femininity into valuable lessons for life. Completely beguiling.
—— Lucy Moore , author of Anything GoesA moving and entertaining double memoir
—— Anne de Courcy , author of The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the RajDelightful… Juxtaposes the lives of two figures who most shaped [Volk’s] views of what a woman could and should be. Both women were opinionated, secretive, imposing, hot-tempered, charismatic and crazy about clothes… Ms. Volk is thoroughly likeable, warm and generous, with a well-tuned ear and a vivid sense of humour.’
—— Washington PostPure joy... A diptych portrayal of Patricia Volk's gorgeous and infuriating mother and the great fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, this is an irresistible tour de force that puts on display Volk's intelligence, wit and sparkling prose.
—— Louis Begley