Along the way, Winchester pauses every third paragraph or so to delve into some topic that is not, at first glance, relevant to his story: Lloyd's of London, for instance, or the Reuters news agency, or Dutch colonial policy in Java, or the biological theories of Alfred Russel Wallace.
Two years ago, founder Brian Scudamore e-mailed the producers of the Oprah Winfrey show asking--in all of one paragraph--to be featured on any upcoming segment having to do with home renovation, a popular topic among the show's viewers.