The Chain of Curiosity

by Sandi Toksvig

Book by Sandi Toksvig

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Essays

309 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Danish/British writer, presenter, comedian, actress and producer on British radio and television. She currently presents The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 and 1001 Things You Should Know on Channel 4. In October 2012 she succeeded Sheila Hancock as Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth.

Reviews

[Susan Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. Just wish I could write like this.

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing collection of newspaper columns by comedian and resident of Britain Sandi Toksvig. Best read in snippets of a few at a time for greatest entertainment value.

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining little read, full of random facts and humour. I think it would be best read as originally written though, one column at a time... reading more than one at once I think it lost its impact and interest value for me.

[Jason Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of Toksvig's columns from the Sunday Telegraph, running from 19 June 2005 to 5 April 2009, each about a thousand words long. They are light fare, cheery-yet-grumbly ramblings, laced with benign humour:

It won't surprise you to learn that as a Dane I have had a long association with [Lego]. (Indeed, if you have the average British person's knowledge of Denmark, you might be equally unmoved to learn that I was brought up by herrings and once met Hamlet's father.)

The pieces are composed of personal anecdotes and historical trivia. Sandi presumably trawls the internet for this stuff, but she succeeds in pulling up endless interesting factoids. Idi Amin kept films of Tom & Jerry. Longfellow was the first American with indoor plumbing. The Twelve Days of Christmas is a coded Catholic catechism. Here's a story about a little girl visiting the studio of sculptor Gutzon Borglum as he chisels at a block of stone:

Lincoln's face was becoming recognisable and the child stared at the piece in amazement. "Is that Abraham Lincoln?" she asked. "Yes," Borglum replied. The girl shook her head and breathlessly asked: "How did you know he was inside there?"

The book is crammed with little smiles like that, and though they may all lie within the public domain, it is very pleasant to have them served up in snack-size nuggets like this. Attempts to retain all these oddities in your head are doomed to fail, as the book overflows with them. I give it 3 stars, since it's finally insubstantial; but it hovers towards 4 stars as a fun read.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I am slightly biased when it comes to Sandi Toksvig, I pretty much adore her and worship the ground she walks on, so needless to say an entire book just filled with Sandi's witty ramblings was right up my street! Her blend of humour and sarcasm teamed with a wealth of fun historical, political and purely random facts and trivia in the hundred or so articles gathered here make this a nice diverting little read. This is a perfect read for fans of Sandi or for people who want to read something fun(ny) but don't have much time - each article is no longer than 2 pages, meaning that the book is easy to pick up, read one or two and then put back down. This was the manner in which I had originally intended to read it, just in drips and drabs when I had no real time to involve myself in reading, but honestly... I devoured this very quickly, I found Sandi's writing to be very addictive and just could not bring myself to leave it alone.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Sandi Toksvig; I have read all her fictional works and never miss an episode of BBC Radio 4's News Quiz.

However I'm not a reader of the Sunday Telegraph and was surprised to learn that she pens a regular column. Around one hundred of these articles, written between 2005 and 2009, are reproduced in this book.

They are all beautifully random and meandering, always amusing and educational, some ephemeral and some thought-provoking. And if nothing else, the book introduced me to the 30-Second Bunnies Theatre Library!

[Karen]

Entertaining ramblings of little import. It's a collection of columns from some newspaper or other, so all the chapters are quite short and self-contained. Lots of fun for those times when you only have five minutes of reading time.

[Richard Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with great pleasure. No profundity just a nicely written collection of articles from the Sunday Telegraph which can be dipped into and read again with pleasure. She can show acerbity alongside her ready wit and good humour.

[Lisa Culligan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to dip in and out of. Some funny anecdotes on the vagaries of life.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, entertaining, amusing.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book to plough through, but for some light-hearted bite-sized wit to take you to lala-land before bed, a treasure.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were lots of really interesting facts in this book and I like Sandi's writing style a lot. The only reason I didn't give a higher score was the fact that the book was really disjointed and I found it hard to get into it. It probably didn't help that I read the book at lunchtimes at work over a long period of time though so that was mostly my fault!

[Abi Starr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually not a huge fan of books that are simply collections of newspaper articles, so I'm not sure how this one made it on to my shelf (I do know, however, that it's sat there for years).

This was really good though, some genuinely interesting (although not really useful) stuff, sprinkled with Sandi's humour.

[Vilhelmiina · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were funny, but reading short column after short column did get a little tedious at times. I liked the earlier ones more, but the international women’s day one right near the end was a favourite too.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection of thoughts, easy to dip in and out of (hence why it took me 7 months to read). Given that they were originally newspaper columns it seems unfair to criticise them for feeling outdated (2008-2009 feels like an awfully long time ago now).

[Rachael Sibley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very QI

A collection of newspaper articles Sandi wrote in the late noughties. I enjoyed the fascinating facts linked to each date, which coupled with Sandi’s humour, made for an interesting and informative read.

[Bew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Unfortunately my teenagers dislike it because I was reading it in bed and woke them up by laughing - they really need to read it themselves.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully funny!

[Gemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Diverting but a but pedestrian. Hardly changed my world and seemed to me the result of hours on Wikipedia.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and fascinating, you can see why she was asked to present QI.

[Bodil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect book to read a few pages in bed, a few pages before turning out the light.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love her style of writing. This title is perfect because she follows the train of her own curiosity into history, geography, philosophy and many of manifestations of her thought process. She is witty and smart. She is like a historical gossip columnist telling secrets about famous and infamous people, mostly dead. This book is a collection of published columns, often citing the activities of people either born or died on the day she is writing. She often includes hilarious puns or jokes, making this one of the best history books I've ever read. I also share her nickname: Stump. Her nickname was coined because of her height; mine was a shortened version of "Tree," my previous name shortened from Theresa which was later changed to Stumpy, a nickname I carried through high school and much of college.

[Sue Brooker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred Between the Stops.