This title is absolutely stuffed with information and bursting with facts, figures and reference data.

Frankly, it is not possible to do a comprehensive review of a work of this size but, rest assured, the bits we did look at were rather good.

With a total of 36,000 articles, 45 video clips, 5,000 quotations, 100 sound clips, 7,000 quiz questions, 150 in-depth essays, 500 bibliographies, 400 tables and 14,000 dictionary entries for difficult words, it would help anyone get to grips with the world and its contents.

The British Multimedia Encyclopaedia does offer some very nice printable maps which could be extremely handy for homework. The text can be copied and pasted into word processor documents, so plagiarism should also not be a problem. Good news for students.

The user interface is very easy to use, but the information is what counts in an encyclopaedia and this one has more than its share.

Low-level software requires a computer with only a 486 processor, so there should not be too many problems with that.

A respectable sound card would help you to make the most of the video and sound clips, while MS Windows 3.1 and above is essential.

Price: £19.99.

Contact: 01480 496600.

Feel good factor: 7 out of 10.