The `Questions Answered' column in The Times encourages readers to answer queries from the mundane to the bizarre, and is always informative often humorous and sometimes controversial.

The column appears every day in the Register section of The Times and tackles such questions as:

Who was the first movie star?

What does `stone the crows' actually mean?

Does eating cheese in the evening really cause bad dreams?

Why is it impossible to open a tight jam-jar without gritting our teeth?

It is true that water going down a plughole will swirl in either a clockwise or anti-clockwise motion depending on whether it is in the northern or southern hemisphere?

Did Henry VIII really write `Greensleeves'?

The book is arranged around broad themes, so that questions and answers on related topics appear together. The resulting compilation is both informative and amusing.