Author(s): John Mitchinson

Gift

In "The Book of the Dead" you will meet hundreds of Dead People, some well-known, others completely obscure, organised into 42 short chapters that play merry hell with the usual classifications. So, instead of Royalty, Scientists and Sportsmen, you'll find rather more diverting categories like People who died Penniless, The One-Legged, Only Children, People who failed at School, Those only Remembered by a Single Quotation and the Last People to Know Everything. Why did a church composer invent the hand grenade? What was Leonardo's proudest achievement? If "The Book of the Dead" doesn't persuade you to immediately join the massed ranks of those looking at the radishes from below, it will certainly make the tricky business of Living a tad less grim and a lot more interesting.