Meet the King of trivia

..and yes, he knows the medical term for a fear of beards

If you've ever wanted to know how many countries drive on the left, how clouds got their names or who supplies bagpipes to the queen, then Ben Schott's Original Miscellany is definitely for you.

At 8.40am, we put the author of the book the test, to see whether he really does know everything about everything.

Schott: it started as a Christmas card

"A year and a half ago, this was just a Christmas card for my friends," Ben explained to Bill and Sian this morning.

"Now, it's a book - and next year I'll be doing a column for the Daily Telegraph."

Ben Schott spent a year in the British Library in London researching his book of miscellany.

It's crammed with the sort of information which you never thought you'd need until you saw it.

If you've never been able to decipher washing symbols on clothes, or, if you have a compulsion to list the bridges over the River Thames in the right order, then it'll probably become an indispensible reference guide.

But Ben Schott himself admits his limitations.

"I went to my first pub quiz a few days ago," he told Bill and Sian "and my team came sixth," he admitted

click here to watch Breakfast's interview in full with Ben Schott

We also asked you a few questions, just to get you into the Trivia groove:

If arachnophobia is a fear of Spiders what do you call a fear of Beards?
A: Pogonophobia

What name is shared by one of the Three Wise Men and the biggest of all the champagne bottles?
A: Melchior

what do you call a group of Ferrets?
A: A business of ferrets

And how many famous Reindeer can you name?
A:Nine - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen - and of course Rudolph!

There are no prizes for getting the right answers.

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Christmas card

Ben Schott's book started out as an idea for a Christmas card. He put it together for 200 of his clients, the idea being to create a little booklet which contained all of the essential information one needed to get through life, but could never find.

Things got out of hand. 160 pages later the Miscellany was born.

Despite having very little publicity, the book is selling well and is currently ranked number 6 in the Amazon chart. It hasn't had much press coverage but like many good Christmas presents is selling on word of mouth.

That's not stopped it getting good reviews - Stephen Fry said: "The best ever collection of essential trivia. Everybody should get one for Christmas. Bless you for Scott's Original Miscellany".

As trivia goes some of the book is very extreme: The 13 principles of witchcraft, all of the clothing care symbols and an encounter with John Lennon's cat.

Ben Schott spent his time meandering through libraries in search of overlooked gems.

In this way, many wonderful facts were unearthed: variations in shoe-lace lengths; the 33-degrees of Freemasonry; the last first-class menu served on The Titanic; the official specification of rope for use in tugs-of-war, and so on.

Unusual methods of research were employed in the collection of some Miscellany entries. For example, it is very hard to find written sources for how to say 'I Love You' in various languages.

Consequently, the author telephoned a host of cultural associations, embassies, restaurants, translation services, and airlines pretending that his girlfriend was Polish/Greek/Swedish, or whatever.

The switchboard operators, their hearts melted by a plea for help, dutifully went and found someone who could translate 'I love you' into the appropriate language.

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Schott's Original Miscellany is published by Bloomsbury, Price £9.99