On academic pay or student grants, there's not many of you can scrape the money together for the entire printed version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. And that doesn't take into account the amount of shelf space you'd have to clear.

Now thanks to the good people at Britannica, you can enjoy this most splendid fount of knowledge free.

Think of that: 91,000 articles, nearly 21,000 photos and illustrations, videos, sound clips and timelines, 220,000 internet links, plus a world atlas, the Merriam Webster collegiate dictionary and thesaurus.

The whole thing is designed for three levels: Encyclopaedia Britannica itself, the Britannica Student Encyclopaedia for 12 - 18 year olds and the Britannica Elementary Encyclopaedia especially tailored for younger children, so there's help at almost any stage of your education.

And if that wasn't enough, there's also free quarterly updates via the internet as well as a 60-day free subscription to Britannica's online premium service.

And all this can be yours. You can pay £59.99 in the shops or you can win your copy, just email us your name and address, with Encyclopaedia Britannica in the subject box, and tell us what format you would prefer - CD-Rom or DVD. And if we pick your name out of a metaphorical hat, then all human wisdom will be yours.

The closing date for this competition is Friday October 12.