Biographic: ABBA

The Biographics series presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world's greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 defining facts, dates, thoughts, habits, and achievements of each subject, and uses infographics to convey each of them in vivid snapshots. The result is a quickfire journey through truths and trivia that is the most entertaining way to follow in the footsteps of the men and women whose lives have most influenced our own. Each Biographic title is designed to be as entertaining as it is informative. Timelines not only pinpoint significant dates, but set them in the context and culture of their times. Dynamic maps locate biographical waymarks alongside other points of interest. Flow-charts and bubble-diagrams depict working processes and styles, and character traits are illuminated by visual comparisons. Biographics blend the essential with the trivial. They paint portraits by numbers, which you seem to learn with your eyes and not your brain. Packed with facts, they are the essential guides to the paths that led to greatness. Most people know that ABBA (1972-1982) were a Swedish band who became one of the world's most successful pop groups after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their song 'Waterloo'. What, perhaps, they don't know is that they have sold over 380 million albums and singles; that their name was chosen through a newspaper competition, alternatives included 'Alibaba', 'FABB' and 'Baba', that their royalties from the Soviet Union were so big they had to be paid in oil rights, and that 3.5 million people applied for tickets to see ABBA at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1977. "Biographic: ABBA" presents an instant impression of their life, work and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the musicians behind the music.