You can't avoid them -- histories of something that altered everything for ever: cod, sugar, gunpowder. The London Times rounds up the new inanimate-tell-alls; the paper can't avoid them, but maybe you can.

Upcoming titles include The Flavour that Changed the World, The House Cat that Changed the World, The Ping-Pong Ball that Changed the World, The Dishwater that Changed the World, and The Pocket Lint that Changed the World. Of course, there's the possibility that the list's a joke. This one, though, which reads quite similarly, isn't.