(United Kingdom) Mitchinson is head of research for the British television programme QI and the managing director of Quite Interesting Limited. He is also the co-author of the QI books, along with the programme’s creator, John Lloyd. Before getting involved in QI, Mitchinson was a book publisher and ran the publishing houses The Harvill Press and Cassell & Co; he also worked as deputy publisher of the Orion Group. He was Marketing Director of Waterstone’s for six years and is currently one of the vice-presidents of the Hay Festival.