Curiosities for Christmas

There is not, sadly, a dedicated Trivia Books section in your local Waterstones, although at this time of year there really should be. But what would we call it? Trivia sounds too trivial. Loo Books sounds too lavatorial. Books for the Man or Woman who Has Everything, Except this Book is probably closest, but might need editing. Whatever we decide to call them, there is an unusually fine crop this year, and several are historically inclined. Gimson’s Kings and Queens (Square Peg, £10.99) is subtitled Brief Lives of the Monarchs since 1066, and gives us exactly that, in Andrew Gimson’s characteristically elegant and entertaining prose. ‘There are many admirable biographies of individual monarchs. But I do not know of a recent, readable volume which covers them all in under 250 pages.’

This is the stuff of history lessons long ago, and long forgotten by most of us. But did I ever know that the King of France gave Henry III an elephant, which lived in the Tower of London and died in 1257, ‘apparently after drinking too much red wine’? George I came to London without a wife, but with two mistresses and 18 cooks.