For some time now, I've wanted to write a book which would answer the sort of questions that you don't even find asked elsewhere – let alone answered.

Obviously, in the interests of eclecticism, I've also included some of the more mundane, workaday questions – what you might call the curriculum for a book of this type – but even here, I have at least tried to bring a fresher less reverent approach to bear.

Still, there's no disguising the fact that it's the more esoteric questions that really grabbed my interest and these are, inevitably, the ones to which I have devoted the most energy.

That's because I really do need to know why the word 'bastard' is only ever used as a term of abuse to men, whether it's dangerous to suppress a fart, you can actually lose weight by eating celery, whether it's possible to knock yourself out using just your own fist, why men don't use electrolysis to remove their beards, what would happen to aeroplane passengers if someone opened the emergency exit while it was in the air and why, of course, girls can't throw.