In fact

March 28, 2008
  • In Britain, of the 200,000 books on sale last year, only 10,000 sold over 3,500 copies. Of the 1.2m titles sold in the US in 2004, only 2 per cent sold more than 5,000 copies. ( The Times, 16th February 2008)


  • Kabul's population has increased from 300,000 in 2001 to 3m today. ( Financial Times, 11th February 2008)


  • Marlboro cigarettes took their name from Great Marlborough Street—the location of the Philip Morris factory that first produced them. (londonist.com, 18th February 2008)


  • In 2007, total European stock market capitalisation exceeded that of the US for the first time since 1945. (Paul Kennedy lecture, LSE, 6th February 2008)


  • Harry S Truman had no middle name—his advisers insisted he insert an initial to gain credibility with voters. (BBC Magazine Monitor, 1st February 2008)


  • Over the past five years, 2.9m rooms have been "lost" in British homes as a result of open-plan conversions. ( Daily Mirror, 29th January 2008)


  • In 40 per cent of weddings in Britain in 2005, at least one person was getting married for at least the second time.
    ( The Observer, 3rd February 2008)


  • In Britain, between 1991 and 2005, deaths directly attributed to alcohol almost doubled. ( British Medical Journal, December 2007)


  • As poet laureate, Andrew Motion receives "a butt of sack per annum" in payment—110 gallons of Spanish sherry, or about 630 bottles, each year. ( Prospect research)


  • Worldwide, the number of mobile phone users will overtake the number of non-users this year for the first time. In 2000, only 12 per cent of the global population had a mobile phone. (AP, 6th February 2008)

  • No British university will offer a women's studies undergraduate course from this summer, when the course at London Metropolitan University closes. ( Times Higher Education, 31st January 2008)

  • Amazon.com's number one reviewer, Harriet Klausner, has averaged 45 reviews a week since 2002. ( Slate, 22nd January 2008)

  • The Arts Council typically spends around 90 per cent of its annual music budget on opera. ( Prospect research)


  • In New York city, January 2008 was the first essentially snowless January in the last 75 years. (LiveScience, 30th January 2008)

  • Nearly 35,000 nurses—enough to staff the entire health service in Wales—have emigrated from Britain in the past four years. ( The Times, 28th January 2008)


  • Cumbria has the lowest number of homicides in England and Wales—none last year compared to 168 in London. (Home Office)


  • Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. (BBC online)


  • 47 per cent of British men and 35 per cent of women would give up sex for six months in exchange for a 50-inch plasma HD television. But only 17 per cent of men would stop watching football for the TV. ( The Register, 11th February 2008)


  • In 2006, Britain spent £497m on cosmetic surgery—more than any other European country. (BBC News Online, 15th February 2008)


  • Smoking is responsible for 25 per cent of all male deaths in the developed world. (World Health Organisation)


  • Brazil has more people of African descent than any country outside Africa. (BBC)