ICON BOOKS’ PRESS RELEASE
22 June 2011

Icon Books is excited to announce a new popular maths and puzzle book by well-known TV personality and acclaimed maths guru, Johnny Ball. Ball of Confusion is due to be published in October 2011 and was commissioned by Simon Flynn, MD of Icon Books for a five-figure advance.

The book is based on the extremely popular father-daughter slot of the same name on Zoe Ball’s Saturday Morning Show on BBC Radio 2, a programme which currently receives the second highest listening figures on Radio 2.

Based closely on the slot in Zoe’s programme, where Johnny sets an early mathematical puzzle and explains the solution to listeners at the end of the show, Ball of Confusion will feature puzzles and problems featured in the show plus many more than Johnny is only now able to reveal. Zoe Ball  will be writing a Foreword to the book.

Simon Flynn says, “We’re absolutely delighted to have secured this book – we’ve all been massive fans of Johnny’s since his incredibly influential BBC TV series in the 80s. As always, Johnny brings his wonderfully infectious enthusiasm to presenting and explaining the huge variety of puzzles that he has featured on Zoe’s Radio 2 Show. Indeed, there are puzzles to be solved in the twinkling of an eye, and puzzles that will furrow the thinking brow for hours.”

The book will be marketed as a fun gift book for those interested in maths and puzzle-solving and will be a perfect stocking-filler for all ages.

Notes to Editors:

- BALL OF CONFUSION (ISBN 9781848313484) by Johnny Ball, with a foreword by Zoe Ball, [£12.99, B-Format Hardback, 1 October 2011]

- Full serial rights available

- Author available for interviews and events

- Icon Books is a successful independent publishing firm based in north London. Icon has published the Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisted, Quantum, the Royal Society Award shortlisted, God’s Philosophers and Delusions of Gender was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Bristol Festival of Ideas Book Prize 2011. Icon specialises in popular science, history and current affairs non-fiction titles.

- Icon Books is part of the Independent Alliance.

- For information, please contact Henry Lord, Acting Publicist, Icon Books, 0207 700 9963 henry.lord@iconbooks.co.uk