TROUBLE with factual miscellanies is that no matter how many are produced, of whatever size and scope, it is always possible to produce as many again – ad infinitum.

So we have here what the title perhaps hints is the best of Schott’s previous three miscellanies but in fact is a fourth – new contents in the same elegant style.

Roofing slate sizes, 480 ways of spelling scissors, the significance of itching in different parts of the body: having somehow escaped Schott’s attention so far, these now appear, along with such diverse facts as traditional sheep-counting terms, the crew of The Italian Job and “curious Bibles of note”.

Fascinating – but where does it get you?