ONCE you start, you can't stop. Each entry you read in this wonderful reference work leads you to another. What starts out as a routine check can keep you enthralled for hours.

Take York. It was the obvious place to begin. And there they are, three entries on York: one for the cathedral city, one for the unitary authority, and one for York, Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and son of George III.

There was, gratifyingly a mistake (always nice to get one over such a weighty tome): one of our waterways renamed the River Fosse. But the rest of the detail could not be faulted. Among famous people listed under the unitary authority entry are WH Auden, Alcuin, Guy Fawkes and John Flaxman.

Being an ignoramus, this sent me scuttling to the entry for John Flaxman, which informed me that he was a neo-classical sculptor (1755-1826), the first professor of the art at the Royal Academy. Which made me wonder when the Royal Academy was set up, and I was flicking through the pages again.

During my browse through the 17,000 articles, I discovered that Tom Cruise's real name is Thomas Cruise Mapother IV; that platypuses experience more dream sleep than any other animal; and that Henry I was said to have died from eating too many lampreys.

It is hard to imagine a single volume containing more information. This 1,000-plus page work comes with web addresses for further study, and is beautifully illustrated with paintings, diagrams and photographs.

Also excellent are the Focus Features, all related to National Curriculum topics. Charles Messenger's essay on The History of the Conflict in the Middle East is as good a summary of this complex tragedy as you could hope to find.