Everyone knows that we're a nation obsessed with runners-up and near-missers, that we find failure heroic and success insipid, if not downright rude. Now, in this entertaining, fact-filled and up-to-date compendium, Gordon Kerr has assembled a veritable menagerie of British bunglers from every conceivable walk of loserdom. Vintage losers such as Caractacus (he lost to the Romans) and Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards jostle with arrivistes on the failure scene like Lewis Hamilton (in a special section of 'controversial' losers) and Colin Pillinger, mastermind of the £44 million Beagle 2 cock-up. Alongside these stellar under-achievers are many previously unacknowledged gems of national inadequacy, such as the Shakespearian actor Robert Coates, who was so bad that in 1816 several audience members injured themselves laughing during a performance of Rowe's death-filled tragedy The Fair Penitent. Entries range from just a few words to several pages for the most energetic incompetents, and are interspersed with themed lists of losers Xmas No. 2s, Wimbledon finalists and so on. There's even a list of those who didn't quite make it into the book. AUTHOR: Gordon Kerr is a full-time writer. He has so far failed to achieve his lifetime ambition of writing a bestselling Christmas book.