This year's edition compiles the very best of the thousands of new records approved over the past year. And with lockdowns and quarantines gradually becoming a distant memory for much of the world, the claims have been flooding in!

Take the plunge with our opening Blue Planet chapter, celebrating watery wonders from rivers, lakes and oceans to icescapes and hot springs.

History is a new feature chapter for GWR 2024. Egyptians, pirates, catapulting knights, vampires and ghosts all vie for your attention in this crazy chronicle of the past 2,000 years.

In the poster-like Explainers, 3D artist Alex Pang peels away the layers of some iconic record breakers. Have you ever seen inside an octopus's head? Or wondered how the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are brought to life? Let us explain...

And finally, we end the book with every significant new sporting achievement logged in the 30-page Sports chapter.

For this year's edition, award-winning artist Rod Hunt has created a dazzling cover packed with record holders. How many can you spot? This is Rod's fourth and (sadly) final outing for GWR, and as we're focusing on the theme of water this time around, he's conjured up an aquatic wonderland. Once again, it "jigsaws" with the covers for the past three years, making a beautiful, highly collectable composite that transports you from the outer reaches of space to the depths of Earth's oceans.