The first novel, called The story of Genji, was written in 1007 by Japanese noble woman, Murasaki Shikibu.

The largest horse statue in the world, the Zizkov Monument in Prague, stands 9 metres (30 ft) tall.

When Auguste Rodin exhibited his first important work, The Bronze Period, in 1878 it was so realistic that people thought he had sacrificed a live model inside the cast.

Noah Webster, who wrote the Webster Dictionary, was known as a short, pale, smug, boastful, humourless, yet religious man.

Ian Fleming’s James Bond debuted in the novel “Casino Royale” in 1952.

In 1961, Matisse’s Le Bateau (The Boat) hung upside-down for 2 months in the Museum of Modern Art, New York – none of the 116,000 visitors had noticed.

The problem of missing teeth was first discussed at length in 1728 by Pierre Fauchard in his book The Surgeon Dentist.

To save costs, the body of Shakespeare’s friend and fellow dramatist, Ben Jonson, was buried standing up in Westminister Abbey, London in 1637.

A 18th century London literary club was called Kit-Cat Club.

When Jonathan Swift published ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ in 1726, he intended it as a satire on the ferociousness of human nature. Today it is enjoyed as a children’s story.

The word “novel” originally derived from the Latin novus, meaning “new.”

The words “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” were penned in the 17th century by English philospher John Locke.

2 billion people still cannot read.

It is said that if a statue of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, like the Zizkov Monument, the person died of natural causes.

The German PJ Reuter started a foreign news agency in 1858. Today Reuters is one of the biggest news agencies in the world.

William Shakespeare wrote his first play The Taming of the Shrew in 1593.

The first novel sold through a vending machine – at the Paris Metro – was Murder on the Orient Express.

The first English dictionary was written by Samuel Johnson in 1755.

The first history book, the Great Universal History, was published by Rashid-Eddin of Persia in 1311.

Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby has 50,110 words, none of which contains the letter “e.”

There are more than ten billion web pages on the internet.

The largest web bookshop, Amazon.com, stores almost 3 million books.

The Bible is the world’s best selling book.

Barbara Cartland completed a novel every two weeks, publishing 723 novels.

Sumerian’s invented writing in the 4th century BC.