Steven Pearlman

This book contains 80 of the best ‘novelty’ rounds that the author has compiled since becoming a quizmaster in 1987. Whilst most quiz books have standard topic rounds of geography, history, TV, sport etc plus general knowledge rounds, what makes this book slightly different is the theme that each round is based on. That theme could be a particular letter, a hidden word, a certain pattern, anagrams, palindromes, length of answer, even dodgy jokes! This book is being published in a uniquely different and difficult year for almost everyone, a year in which quizzing has become even more popular, so I hope that it proves to be a useful tool for people’s well-being.

This is an anthology of humorous poetry that has been 40 years in the making. I'm not going as far back as my silly limerick about a gorilla which I wrote when I was nine or ten but I do remember the pleasure I got in composing it and in making other children laugh with it. I suppose my 'serious' attempts at humorous poetry began at Bradford University where I was the unofficial resident poet at a fortnightly folk club in the cellar of the Catholic chaplaincy. I felt obliged to inflict my warped observations and tortuous puns on whoever remained in the room. I love the way a whole poem can grow from just one observation, one comment, one pun. I find that developing that idea and playing around with words, even parts of words, to be a deeply satisfying process. I use humorous poetry as a way of expressing my opinions, feelings or personality in a brief, easily accessible and hopefully entertaining way. Enjoy/endure.