If you're intrigued by the fact that Jack the Ripper was left-handed, or that Heinz ketchup flows at 0.7 miles per day - and, more importantly, intrigued by why you're intrigued - then this book is required reading. Convinced that our love of trivia must reveal something truly important about us, Mark Mason sets out to discover what that something is. The quest takes him further than he could ever have imagined, from the Natural History Museum to Blackpool Tower, from a pub quiz in Suffolk to the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. It leads to lengthy conversations with three professors, the team behind QI, and half of Chas and Dave. It even involves a major scientific discovery at the foot of Big Ben.

Mark's journey forces him to re-evaluate everything, from his view of knowledge to his relationship with his girlfriend. Trivia, far from being trivial, leads him to tackle life's fundamental questions. Why is it so difficult to forget that Keith Richards was a choirboy at the Queen's coronation when it's so hard to remember what we did last Thursday? Are men more obsessed with trivia than women? Can it be proved that house flies hum in the key of F? Can anything ever really be proved? And the biggest question of them all: is there a perfect fact, and if so what is it?