What a very strange week it has been in my world.

The ninth edition of the A to Z of almost Everything was presented to my printer in mid-August for its customary late September launch date, but on Monday I received an email from Bell & Bain expressing their sorrow that “in these strange times” they had got rather behind with their print queue and the book would be published a week or two late.  This was a bit of a blow as my pre-launch publicity had been arranged for 27 September, however, on the positive side this meant I was able to avail myself of their offer to update various areas of the book reflecting the new premiership of Liz Truss. I delayed my holiday to Nottingham taking in our annual Mastermind Club function, rallied the troops and within 24 hours had updated accordingly.

My amended Author’s Note is reproduced below informing of new content and highlighting the fact that I diligently updated to reflect the status quo BUT of course, no sooner was the update sent to print than the devastating news of the Queen’s  death became apparent.

I thought long and hard as to whether I should again hold back the front page so to speak but as a life-long Royalist I felt I wanted to do justice to the various threads running through the book and this would not be possible in the small window of opportunity given me by my print company.

The many areas affected by Her Majesty’s passing relevant to this book include the change to King in titles such as Master of the Queen’s Music, Queen’s Bench Division, Queen’s Counsel, Queen’s Gallantry Medal, Queen’s Police Medal, and of course the National Anthem. Terms such as ‘Turning Queen’s Evidence’ and all reference to official duties such as Lord Lieutenants being the Queen’s personal representative in ceremonial counties require change as well as King Charles III now being the Head of State of 15 Commonwealth countries. And of course the Order of Succession and Precedence has now changed plus Prince of Wales. Stamps and coins will inevitably change too at some point and it would be remiss of me if I didn’t give mention to the Queen’s funeral. King Charles III will no doubt be crowned before the next edition so it would seem apt to wait and update accordingly in the next edition.

On return from Nottingham I felt compelled to pay my respects to our beloved Queen so I booked a London hotel and duly joined the queue near my former publisher on Waterloo Bridge. As darkness loomed I passed security and entered Westminster Hall to eerie silence broken only by the faint sound of mourners’ sniffles, not least my own. I was overcome with emotion.

After watching the Queen’s Christmas Message last year I was moved to write an obsequious but truly, not sycophantic letter to Her Majesty. My missive did not warrant or seek reply but in light of what has transpired the past week I am so glad I was able to communicate sentiments that are clearly shared by many millions of loyal subjects. History will be kind to Queen Elizabeth the Great; it will tell the story of a monarch, the greatest of them all in my quite biased opinion, who turned perfidious albion into a nation to be envied all around the world.

Having been a Christian almost all my life I have lived through the changing ways society has dictated my faith be expressed and I was always heartened by Her Majesty’s humility and recognition that the life of Jesus was the bedrock of the Queen’s faith as it is with all true Christians.

The reply to my letter received on 4 March 2022, and signed by Lady-in-Waiting Jennifer Gordon Lennox,is now a most treasured possession and I feel so honoured and blessed I was able to communicate my undying love for all that Her Majesty has been to a nation and beyond. To know that the Queen read my letter and asked her Lady-In-Waiting to thank me for my ‘kind sentiments’ means so much to me at this time.

Author’s Note to the ninth edition of the A to Z of almost Everything

All the information from the eighth edition remains intact except for three sections: Current Affairs (noteworthy events of the past three years being recorded across relevant sections rather than the normal chronological listing), General Election results (2017 results replaced by the 2019 results), and minor Oscar winners (2017-19 winners replaced by 2020-22 winners).

New topics include: Alloys, Antelopes, Apollo Space Missions, Closing Lines of Famous Films, Currency Comparisons, Degree Classifications, Generations of the Western World, Highest Mountains entirely within a particular country, Hottest Chilli Peppers, John Creasey’s Pseudonyms, LPs - year of release and Highest Chart Position, Metric SI prefixes, Minerals, Neologisms, Parts of a Horse’s Body, Psychologists, Stirling Prize Winners, Television Advertising Campaigns, Topography Terms, Video Games, Weapons of War, Word Meanings, and World Heritage Sites – to name but a few.

When putting the previous edition to bed I was left frustrated by the uncertainty over the imminent withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and although the post-Brexit denouement has yet to be unravelled in holistic terms, it is clear that there has been teething problems, possibly contributing to bureaucratic delays, acceleration of inflation, and decrease in educational funding. On 6^th September Liz Truss met the Queen at Balmoral and was asked to form a government after the resignation of Boris Johnson. Details of the subsequent Cabinet reshuffle have been included as stop press items in the relevant sections of this ninth edition to prevent my suffering the same frustration and I’d like to thank my typesetter Ian Taylor and Printer Bell & Bain for being so accommodating.

Back in my quiz-playing days it was the norm to feel a little under-prepared for competitions as the scope for knowledge is ever-expanding and that blissful state of nirvana is rarely, if ever, attained. It is no different now that I have effectively become poacher turned gamekeeper and as always when faced with this last opportunity to purvey facts, a snippet I consider to be of vital importance, pops into my head and I am horrified to find no mention within the covers of this cornucopia. So by way of redress I’d like to proffer that Britain has four assay offices: London (leopard’s head), Birmingham (anchor), Sheffield (formerly crown but changed to white rose of York in 1977), and Edinburgh (three-towered castle); the term hallmark for these depictions named from the London office, Goldsmith’s Hall. In addition, the Hallmarking Act 1973 states Platinum, Gold and Silver must also depict an orb, crown, and a lion passant respectively, and since 2010 Palladium (head of Pallas Athene) has been added to the list.

As I write this amid the first rain to fall since the UK Government declared a state of drought I am reminded of a word I haven’t heard for many a year, Petrichor. Even the name conjures up mystical connotations which are borne out in fact. It is however difficult to define exactly what this word means, as indeed similar to another familiar word from my misspent youth, i.e., prial (meaning three cards of the same denomination), I have been unable to find a clear definition in any of my dictionaries, hence it doesn’t appear in my word meanings section. Petrichor is in fact a rather nostalgic smell offering better things on the horizon, it is as well-known to us as other equally illusory, albeit optical, delights such as the heat shimmer or rainbow. Scientists have established this wonderful phenomenon to be caused by the effect rain, with all its variable acidic properties, has on plants, grass and soil after prolonged periods of aridity.

So now I have got that off my chest all is again right with the world!

In the rubric at the beginning of the Britain section of the eighth edition I suggested Surrey County Council might consider relocating its administrative offices from Kingston to an area which is actually within the county bounds and although I cannot take any credit for the move I am very pleased to report this anomaly has now been addressed and Reigate is the new home of the council offices.

And finally, I would like to explain that in the areas of this book where I have merely listed a proliferation of names such as famous musicians, singers or sportspeople without recourse to further expansion, the allusion is that I am very well aware that in the modern technological world it is not enough to expect a single volume book to have all the answers, if indeed it was possible to bind such a tome, but conversely the importance of having a hard copy of a book that can point you in the direction of further study and negate the so-called Google effect cannot be underestimated. For aspiring knowledge experts I would suggest as a companion to this book, a good world atlas and some form of access to the Internet.

I hope you will be edified and entertained when dipping in to this book.

As always I have done my utmost to achieve 100 per cent accuracy, but if I have fallen short or you would like to suggest new topics or discuss existing ones, please write to me via my website.

At this point I would also like to mention previous contributors once again as the original book, compiled more than twenty five years ago, could not have been done so without the invaluable help of so many of my friends some of which are sadly no longer with us. Take a bow Kevin Ashman, Jeremy Beadle, Mike Billson, Mark Bytheway, Eric Carden, Peter Chitty, Sharon Chladek, Bob Collier, Patricia Cowley, Andy Curtis, Peter Ediss, Robert Edwards, Brian Ennis, Keith Fawdry, Gavin Fuller, Phillida Grantham, Dag Griffiths, Paul Henderson, Chris Hughes, Bob Jones, Will Jones, Ann Kelly, Mark Kerr, Eric Kilby, Mel Kinsey, Phil Lewis, Gavin Loughton, Magnus Magnusson KBE, Jonathan Marvin, Ruth Benjamin Marvin, Christine Moorcroft, Mike O’Sullivan, Anita Oxley, Trevor Parry, Peter Phelan, Fiona Redmond, Craig Scott, Tony Sherwood, John Snow, Leo Stevenson, Rob Sutherland, Geoff Thomas, Gordon Troughton, Ritchie Venner, Ray Ward, Tim Westcott, Neil White, and John Wilson.