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 6th 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.