What is Pears? First published in 1897, Pears Shilling Cyclopaedia contained topics ranging from questions of etiquette to 'curious and useful information everyone ought to know in commerce, history, science, religion and literature'. Now 111 years later, Pears is still informing, intriguing and surprising new generations of readers with its mixture of up-to-the-minute facts and figures and little-known curiosities and it is the only book of its kind to be annually updated by over 30 experts. From Bow Bells to Byzantine art, from Komodo dragons to kamikaze pilots, from literary pseudonyms to a chronicle of global history, Pears condenses a world of information into one concise volume. It is the Swiss army knife of reference books, one that should be found on every family bookshelf.