What is Pears?
First published in 1897, Pears Shilling Cyclopedia contained topics ranging from useful facts to questions of etiquette and a compendium of... » 

What is Pears?
First published in 1897, Pears Shilling Cyclopedia contained topics ranging from useful facts to questions of etiquette and a compendium of 'curious and useful information about things everyone ought to know in commerce, history, science, religion, literature and other topics of ordinary conversation.' Now 110 years later, Pears is still informing, intriguing and surprising new generations of readers with its mixture of little-known curiosities and up-to-the-minute facts and figures and it is the only book of its kind to be annually updated by experts.

What's new this year?
This latest edition contains many of the original's favourite topics and a host of new features. There are major sections ranging from world affairs and economics, through literature and music to the environment; a detailed world gazetteer (with updated census figures) as well as subjects as diverse as sporting winners, classical mythology and money matters (complete with the latest tax tables and mortgage advice). Specialist scientific topics covered in this new edition range from pandemics (such as bird flu) to genetics and global warming. In the arts, there are popular sections on modern literature, narrative surveys of music and art and a wide-ranging guide to modern cinema. Everything you could possibly want to know about - from intelligent design to isobars, crosswords to cochineal, the Sistine Chapel to sudoku. It's all here. «