The British voter is a strange beast: both excitable and cautious, radical and conservative, resigned and optimistic. This book wants to get under the bonnet of polling, and takes aim at the use, and abuse, of polling in modern politics. It does it with such aplomb that no political home’s Christmas tree should be without a copy neatly wrapped and waiting beneath it.

But polling can be dry, dull and mathematical, so the authors have hit on an excellent wheeze. The book is composed of 50 chapters, each with a single author and a mere thousand words long. They cover an impressive array of subjects in polling, from the effect of family members on voters’ preferences, to people’s consistent inability to remember whether and how they voted, to the now-infamous question of the public’s view of how likely different party supporters are to indulge in various bedroom activities.

The benefits are obvious, and varied. Each chapter is lean and tightly focused; not pretending to be a comprehensive grounding in its subject matter, more of an engaging amuse-bouche teaser. The format lends itself to good writing and to interesting, novel or arresting subjects. Even as a seasoned and jaded observer of polls, I nevertheless found welcome surprises about public opinion and behaviour, particularly on the subject of turnout. As it turns out, it does not have nearly as much effect on the outcome of elections as most people suppose.

There are consistent themes running through the book, and everybody who has ever started an argument by saying ‘Well, what the polls say …’ should heed them. Public opinion is subtle and nuanced, while polls merely reflect it. How well they do this depends on what questions they ask and what they are asking about. Even honest and responsible people can be susceptible to giving misleading answers, second guessing themselves, or being poor predictors of their own behaviour.

This means that this is not just a fun book, it is an important book too. When an important book comes along that you can read and enjoy in a train journey, or where a new chapter takes a mere 10 minutes to read, it is worth taking notice. This book will not revolutionise the way that people approach polling and public opinion, but if more people read it, political and media discourse around public opinion might change for the better.

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David Green is a management consultant and former Labour party organiser. He tweets @itsdavegreen

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Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box: 50 things you need to know about British elections

By Philip Cowley and Robert Ford

Biteback Publishing | 336 pp | £14.99