IF you think that military history is boring, then Justin Pollard is the man to change your mind.

Forget tactics, uniforms and strategies and think toilets that sink U-boats, armies that stop for tea and blind and drunk generals, and you get the picture.

The madder the better is the motto for Pollard, which is what you would expect from a researcher for QI.

In a companion book, The Interesting Brits, he draws your attention to such things as how Robert Pate hit Queen Victoria on the head with a walking stick and why Alexandra of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a piano.