THIS is one of those joyous books that will have you laughing out loud.

Richard Benson has found mistakes that children make on their exam papers and divides the blunders into subject matter. As we read the questions and answers we can imagine the children sitting at their desks scratching their heads, chewing their pens, turning round to see how their mates are getting on.

Some of their responses are accompanied with drawings done out of boredom and are very creative, almost deserving a good mark for the pleasure it gives us.

Sometimes they are spelling mistakes, yes, Queen Victoria sat on a thorn for 63 years; sometimes sheer ignorance of the question, as in the empty birdcage as a drawing of a polygon, it makes you wonder if they are they having a laugh at the teachers’ expense. I am buying this book for all my friends who teach but you do not have to be in education to enjoy it; it made me weep with laughter.