In a rather beautiful metallic navy blue tin box decorated with silver embossed bottles, contained within are 21 sonic feats to amaze your guests. Enjoy Glacial Glockenspiel in which the host plays it cool. Fill a baking tray with about 4cm of water and leave it in the freezer overnight. In the morning, remove the slab of ice and let it rest for around five minutes. With a large, serrated knife, gently and slowly saw the ice width ways into five slabs of decreasing size, in rough proportion. Scrape off the edges until they are fairly smooth and then put them back in the freezer for another few hours. Cut a cucumber into two, long flat strips and place about 8cm apart in parallel and balance the ice bars between them like railway sleepers. Your instrument is now ready. Your mallets, in this instance, are a pair of teaspoons. Virtuosi could use carrots as mallets with your ice now resonant, compose a hymn to polar extremes while we still have them and tap out a tribute to the penguins. Let the room temperature dictate how long your piece lasts and listen as it melts for new and undiscovered tunings. Free Jazz Popcorn needs the equipment of cooking oil, four saucepans, popcorn, tin foil, baking paper and elastic bands or string for a fantastic two minute drum solo. When the Marrow Blows involves a courgette and a wooden spoon and the Ballad of the Greengrocer a cucumber, knife, wooden spoon, apple corer or potato peeler, a carrot and a pepper. Purse your lips and blow through them like a high-pitched raspberry and place your fingers over the holes to make different notes. Dinner parties will never be tame again as you liven up evenings with these hilarious after dinner sound and music experiments, a favourite of which here is recreating the fizz and crackle of a barbershop quartet on an old-time gramophone. You're in for a good time. 21 handsome double sided colourful cards of a large size, get out those wine glasses now and start to sing! Pity the poor dog!

''Has anybody in here got a degree?' demanded the examiner as he opened his introductory talk on the Knowledge of London at the Old Public Carriage Office in October 2008. One or two of us in the room sheepishly raised our hands 'Well, this is harder,' he boomed in his stern cockney accent.' Welcome to a London quiz book like no other, written by a licensed London taxi driver who spent more than four years of intensive study on top of a full time job and countless hours riding around London on a moped learning 320 set routes around a 9km (six mile) radius of Charing Cross, memorising thousands of points of interest from a nondescript Balham boozer to Buckingham Palace. Five sets of quizzes are based on actual set routes beginning with the first they all learn ? Manor House Station to Gibson Square and ending with the last, Copenhagen Street to Charing Cross Station. The book deliberately captures as many of the big sights as possible and the routes get harder. The eagle-eyed reader might spot one or two which might not have scored full marks for being the most direct routes in an actual Knowledge appearance. Here is all the slang and lingo like ten o'clock known in the trade as 'burst time' because the double doors of theatres and concerts are flung open and every back seat of every black cab is quickly filled. Ian Beetlestone takes us on a guided tour around London's 40,000 plus streets with 500 head scratching questions from easy to mind-bendingly difficult. What is Walthamstow's postcode, and what's it got to do with Christmas 1994? Holland Park is home to annual summer season performances of what? Which club, just east of Putney Bridge Station, was the site of the first match in which sport in 1874? Who, reportedly, had notorious premises at 186 Fleet Street in the 18th century? From the Royal College of Music SW7 to Crouch Hill Station N4, London City Airport to Hornchurch or Consort Road SE15 to the Ministry of Defence SW1, for each there is a full page A-Z style colour map and bullet point details and facts throughout these big colourful pages. 184pp, softback.

Smartly packaged in bottle green slipcase are 60 sturdy puzzle cards to quiz family and friends. The puzzles are linked to real world science, so you learn as you go through. Are there rainbows on the Moon? Can the Moon's light also produce a rainbow here on Earth? How do I make a toy boat? Does wind affect my mind? How could I tell if an egg is raw? How do you drive on ice? How do you walk on a tightrope? Should I run through the rain? How do you burst a barrel? Why do boomerangs come back? Why does a golf ball have dimples? Why do your feet feel cold on a wooden floor and of course how do you get an egg into a bottle? Bizarre, weird and wonderful puzzles from the world of science, each card has the full answer on the reverse. Perfect for organising that quiz night.

The Front Row and Loose End journalist and comedy writer has hosted quizzes for over 15 years and here is his 'quite difficult' quiz book including Christmas Specials, Pop, Literature and Comedy. It is a book full of more than 250 rounds, questions, facts and trivia, oddities and brain-prodders and most of all ideas in a practical quiz book where all the extras you will need are people, pens and paper (and drinks and snacks) to educate, illuminate and infuriate. Please name the shows/movies/books of which these claim to be prequels: First of the Summer Wine, The Magician's Nephew, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, Red Dragon, The Silmarillion, The Wide Sargasso Sea, Wicked, Rock and Chips, Manhunter, The Flashman Papers. Plus picture rounds, audio, and how to be a good quiz master. 245pp, 264 rounds and a whopping 2155 questions, and thankfully answers.

This is a pocket guide that explains the history of dice games and clear explanations on how to play them including tips on winning and how to avoid being tricked by loaded or 'crooked' dice. Sections in the book include medieval games such as farkle and Gluckhaus, as well as craps, a few games of risk, board games, dice chess, backgammon and family dice games. Every game lists step-by-step instructions on how to play it but also includes advice. In the craps section, the author highlights how to best place a bet during the game such as how a bet on the pass line means the player is backing the shooter to make a seven or 11 on his come out throw. The book explains two variants of Klondike: Counter Klondike which is a simple one throw game which was played by miners and prospectors throughout the Old West and Casino Klondike which is different because it includes the additional component of beating two aces. There are fantastic tips such as how most shop dice are a bit crooked as standard dice are not precision made and will be slightly more weighted to the five and six because they have more indentations in them, making them lighter. The book also celebrates the history of famous dice players such as Queen Elizabeth I who enjoyed playing dice after she was taught by her sister Mary, and King Olaf, who ruled Norway between 1015 and 1030 and played a game of dice against the King of Sweden to decide the fate of Hising - which became part of Norway. There are super black and white diagrams to explain the games to eager readers such as a pachisi board, a Ludo board, a depiction of dice chess and a rendering of a backgammon board. Paperback, illus, 176pp.

12" square strong board box containing five double-sided sturdy playing boards and accessories to play no less than 100 games. The instruction book covers them all from chess, Crokinole with its discs and shooting lines, Ludo, Nine Men's Morris, four in a row, tic-tac-toe, snakes and ladders, checkers, solitaire, barbudi, heaven and nine, yacht, drop dead, pig, poker dice, and a fantastic series of matchstick games including turning the donkey and the wine glasses puzzle. Colourful 'matchsticks', 16 plastic simple figures in four primary colours, 15 white and 15 black playing pieces for chess and draughts, and five rolling dice. Colour boards. One for all the family ages 6+ and one to eight players. Fantastic value for money.

Freshwater, game fishing, saltwater and fly fishing, Angling is one of the most popular sports around the world, giving thousands of hours of pleasure to people of all ages and skill levels. This fully updated practical guide incorporates coarse fishing, sea angling and game fishing, giving the angler a strong foundation in what to fish for, how to fish, the different styles of fishing and the best locations to practise the sport. The book includes a marvellous visual identifier to the major species for all nature lovers including freshwater carp, chub and barbel, saltwater bass, skate and mackerel and the main game fish - trout and salmon. There is helpful advice on recognition, size potential and feeding habits, and all types of natural and artificial baits and lures are discussed and guidance to making baits and fly-tying patterns. Reading the water whether it is still or running, lake, river or reservoir is an important angling skill and the experts in their own fields tell you how to do this in this essential reference. Techniques are covered in detail including float fishing, freelining, ledgering, surface and pole fishing, beach casting, shore fishing and boat fishing with comprehensive diagrams of rigs and which technique is most appropriate to the waterscape. Big glossy white paper has been used throughout this 256 page excellent compendium packed with 1,200 pictures and colour photos and step by step instructions. 10" x 14" approx.

Perfect for playing with your family and friends, this kit contains everything you need to create five intricate escape rooms in your living room. Can you outwit the diabolical Wexell Corporation and save the world? Solve the interactive puzzles to break out of five fiendish rooms with this special one-of-a-kind kit. The box set includes a story book, 41 puzzle cards, ten easy, medium and difficult hint cards and cut-out dice. The door closes behind you. Too late, you see the strange lock that has been fixed to it, you look around and realise you're trapped! Join investigative reporter Adam Parkinson as he finds himself ensnared and help solve a series of puzzles in order to escape from the clutches of the evil Wexell, and then uncover their malevolent master plan for world domination. Written by an experienced escape room creator, you help Adam and his conspiracy-theorist friend Henry Fielding. A unique gaming experience, you must reach each new location before time runs out. Quality box set.

Tall, elegant hardback, slim enough to fit into the walker's pocket, with beautiful line drawn maps for meandering through Salcey Forest in Northamptonshire towards Buckinghamshire, St. David's Head in Pembrokeshire, Castle Carrock and the River Gelt Cumbria, the Ashdown Forest to play Pooh Sticks or Swanwick to Corfe in Dorset, here are paths that will lead you through our golden island of discovery. Christopher Somerville is one of Britain's best-loved walking journalists and personalities and here presents a personal selection of his best walks. Laid by region with over 40 illustrations and area maps, car parks, circular routes, easy-to-follow directions and what to look out for, the volume is a treasury of anecdote, observation and description. 534pp.

Beautifully presented in a small wooden box measuring 3½" x 4½" with a sliding lid are a set of ten heavyweight jacks in gold and silver and two sturdy red bouncing balls to enjoy this traditional and great fun game. Sit or stand on a level playing surface and toss ten jacks followed by the ball into the air and while the ball is in the air pick up one jack with the throwing hand. Catch the ball with your throwing hand before it hits the surface. Repeat until all 10 jacks have been picked up and continue by repeating and pick up two jacks, then three, until you are picking all ten jacks at once! The other player gets a turn when you miss a jack or the ball. Safety approved.