The comedy podcast group No Such Thing As A Fish gave a hilarious and insightful talk about the Book of the Year 2019 at the Bridge Theatre in London on October 20th, 2019.

 

No Such Thing As A Fish is the name of both a group of QI Elves formed of Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray and Anna Ptaszynski and the podcast they started in 2014. In it, each researcher brings their favourite fact from the last seven days to a discussion around the microphones in the QI offices in Cove(r)nt Garden or in one of their live shows. Starting in 2017, they have also produced a “Book of the Year”, which features the best facts of the year (and absolutely no Brexit). It was to a book event of the 2019 edition I, my friend Caitlin Kinch and my mother went.

 

The event was held in the normal style of the podcast however all the facts were excerpts from the book, recorded live for the audiobook. With subjects ranging from the Mueller report to bad animals to come back as in the next life, each “Elf” informed us of their passions of the last year. In equal parts funny and genuinely interesting, we were kept laughing the whole time. My personal favourite parts where when a frankly astonishing percentage of the U.S population claimed to have read the Mueller report in its entirety (far more than the number of copies that had been sold), and unlikely tales of fat rats stuck in manhole covers. Caitlin Kinch, 15, said, “My favourite part was the 60 (m) tall “Sausage of the North” which would have been one and a half times the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio!”

 

As well as being thoroughly amused by the eccentricities of the past year, we also went to a signing straight after the show. We all received a copy of the book with the ticket, and we got them signed. The “Elves” were all so lovely and were as excited to meet us as we were to meet them, due to a connection between us, Anna Ptaszynski and “A Quite Interesting Game” from 2005. They let us have a photo behind the desk and offered to show us backstage if we ever went to see QI being recorded. I think that after tonight we most definitely will!

 

By Esther O'Neill, Newstead Wood