The Top 10 of Everything 2000

The irresistible mix of facts and trivia featured in over 1,000 lists in this special millennium edition covers a diverse range of subjects from presidents to air disasters to what's in a name to toys and games. Top Ten dips into every area of human achievement and every area of the natural world, with such sections as the Universe & the earth; Culture & Learning; the Human World; Town & Country; Music, Stage, Screen & Broadcasting; and Sports. The spectacular Millennium portion -- printed on 32 pages of silver paper -- provides insight into the way the world and its inhabitants have changed over the last 1,000 years. Informative, entertaining, and unmatched in the depth and breadth of its intriguing facts, Top Ten is impossible to put down!

Russell Ash is the uncontested king of lists. Not simply a career, listmaking is his legend, facts his friends, statistics his sanctuary, trivia his triumph.

He was descended from a family of craftsmen who were London goldsmiths and silversmiths for several generations since the 17th century -- the most notable being Claudius Ash (1792-1854), one of the principal inventors of false teeth. His father was a bookbinder at the British Museum. Born in 1946, educated at Bedford Modern School, Mr. Ash attended Durham University where he earned a Joint Honours BA in Anthropology and Geology.

Russell Ash began his career in publishing as a picture researcher in 1967; he moved on in 1973 to establish his own publishing company, Ash & Grant, and was a director of Weidenfeld & Nicholson and Pavilion Books. Mr. Ash has spent most of the past 30 years as a freelance writer and contributor to almost 100 non-fiction titles on such subjects as art (particularly the Impressionists and other late nineteenth-century painters), animals real and fictitious (he is the official "biographer" of Paddington Bear), and humor.

He has compiled various award-winning popular reference titles, including the perennial bestselling Top Ten of Everything, which has also inspired a weekly network children's television series in the UK (in which he appears). He has also written Incredible Comparisons, which features a variety of fascinating objects side by side with accompanying statistics. The World in One Day is his 1997 bestseller for children, chronicling all the facts about daily life. His latest children's book, Factastic Millennium Facts, is packed with intriguing information and entertaining anecdotes covering the key worldwide political, social , and cultural events of the last 1,000 years.

Russell Ash is currently an author, occasional journalist, and packager of books in the UK and US. He lives in a large Victorian house (which he is restoring) in Sussex, England with his wife, daughter, and two sons. He has recently returned to the family tradition by learning the craft of silversmithing.