The 1% Club contestant misses out on £93,000 after fiendish book puzzle

A The 1% Club contestant came within one answer of a £93,000 jackpot, only to see the money disappear after a deceptively simple question involving three cookery books.

Amena had already secured £10,000 by reaching the final stage of the ITV quiz show. She then chose to gamble that money on the programme’s notoriously difficult 1% question.

She needed to find the distance between two particular pages in a row of books. Her answer was 14.9cm.

The correct answer was 7cm.

A £93,000 decision

Hosted by Lee Mack, The 1% Club is built around logic and common sense rather than traditional general knowledge. One hundred contestants take part, with the questions becoming progressively harder as the game goes on. ITV describes the format as a test of logic in which players ultimately face a question that only 1% of the country is expected to answer correctly.

On the episode in question, Amena was the only contestant left by the final round.

She had already won £10,000 for making it that far, but instead of taking the money, she decided to risk it for the much larger £93,000 prize pot.

That meant she had to solve one final puzzle against the clock.

The question showed three volumes of a cookery book series arranged beside one another on a shelf.

Each volume had 5cm of pages, while every cover was 5mm thick.

The challenge was to work out the distance between the first page of Volume 1 and the last page of Volume 3.

With the clock running, Amena gave her answer to Lee Mack.

She went with 14.9cm.

Unfortunately, it was wrong.

The answer was 7cm

Lee revealed that the correct answer was 7cm, explaining that the positioning of the pages was the key to the puzzle.

When books are standing upright on a shelf, the first page is on the right-hand side, while the last page is on the left.

That means the distance being measured does not include all three books.

Instead, only the pages of one book, along with four covers, need to be counted.

The calculation therefore comes to 7cm.

Amena’s incorrect answer meant she lost the chance to take the £93,000 jackpot and left the show without the prize.

Viewers divided over the final puzzle

The question prompted plenty of reaction from viewers, with some sympathising with Amena after she had made it all the way to the final challenge.

One viewer said they felt sorry for her but praised her for reaching the 1% question.

Others were far less impressed with the puzzle itself. Some viewers argued that the wording made the question unnecessarily confusing, while others described it as a trick question and questioned whether it was fair.

The debate highlighted exactly what makes the final stage of The 1% Club so difficult: the answer often depends on noticing a small detail rather than applying complicated knowledge.

The £100,000 winner who made history

Amena’s near miss came shortly after another contestant achieved something the show had never seen before.

School teacher Maccisha became the first contestant to take home the entire £100,000 prize pot. Her victory came during the series’ opening episode on 10 January 2026.

Maccisha faced the final question alongside two other contestants and was asked to identify the lowest number that could replace the question mark in a sequence:

1+2 = one
2+2 = four
3+2 = three
3+3 = eleven
4+3 = ??

Maccisha correctly answered fifteen.

The trick was that the first number represented the number of consonants in the written number, while the second represented its vowels. Fifteen has four consonants and three vowels, making 15 the lowest number that fits the final pattern.

When Lee Mack confirmed her answer and revealed that she had won the full £100,000, Maccisha covered her mouth in shock as the studio erupted in celebration.

Could you have solved Amena’s question?

The book puzzle looks like a straightforward measurement problem, which makes it easy to start adding the thickness of every book and cover.

The crucial detail is the direction in which the books are positioned.

Because the first page of Volume 1 and the final page of Volume 3 face inward in the arrangement, the outer books contribute only their covers to the distance being measured. The pages that matter are those belonging to the middle book.

That leaves 5cm of pages plus four 5mm covers, giving the correct total of 7cm.

Amena’s answer may have been wrong, but reaching the final question meant she had already made it further than the vast majority of the 100 contestants.

The 1% Club is hosted by Lee Mack and is available on ITV and ITVX.