Irony & Sarcasm at its best... - Rated 
It is obvious that judging by the book title this isn't going to be on the reading list of a history course at university, and that is why I bought it, and thrice more as gifts! I am surprised at all those who were surprised that it wasn't a completely serious book (hence the title), what on earth did they expect?
For a very broad overview of Britain's history this book does the job. It is in short easy to read sections with humour on (almost) every page, with some bowel bursting funny bits. So if you like to dip in and out of books, enjoy history and have a laugh this is a good one. If you're studying history and don't enjoy humour, then maybe you are a descendant of those in the second half of the title and you deserve to be miserable!
ps The conversation at the end between the ghostly historical characters is sublime. How fitting to end with the offer to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea!
light history - Rated 
2000 years of history in a bit under 600 pages cant be bad - right?
Well for me it was pretty good. The author keeps the narrative ticking over with the barest headlines from each period and enough jokes to keep things light weight. Fine for holiday reading or when you want something a little deeper than The Sun. However, as many with a more serious bent will point out there is a lot of summarising going on, but what do you expect for a comedy/history hybrid?
As long as you know what you're buying (light weight history of Britain, not an authoratitive thesis on proto-European politics/economics/military strategy and you're not a pedant) you'll get on with the book just fine
What a load of George the Third's - Rated 
First up, a confession. This isn't really a review of the whole book. I had to give up after no more than 20 pages (and a skim through the rest of it) because I found the approach tiresome in the extreme. Each paragraph has little nugget of historical fact and then bolted on in the most awkward and unwieldy manner is a funny comment or amusing bit of imagined dialogue. This formula is then repeated over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. This is the first time I've ever felt like shouting at a book and telling it to shut up. It was at that point I decided it was probably time to stop reading.
If you read Mark Steel's book about the French Revolution, it's not dissimilar to that, though obviously with a broader canvas. At least I managed to finish the Steel book. Just.
Both books are plagued with an anxiety that the subject matter is not interesting enough in itself so they have to have running stand up routines throughout. This wouldn't matter if (a) the jokes were funny and (b) they provided an interesting slant on the topic but (a) they aren't (most of the time) and (b) they don't and (c) there wasn't a (c).
What a shame then, because there is definitely mileage in the 'light hearted look' at history approach but not the way it's been handled here.
What is the point of this book? - Rated
A poor attempt at making history enjoyable through the application of humour. Unfortunately, it fails on two counts - it isn't historically accurate and it is rarely funny.
Every point seems to be followed by an attempt at humour. This separation of the 'humour' from the 'facts' is clumsy (by comparison - think Bryson), and the author seems to have little more than a superficial grasp of the subject matter.
I know his defenders may argue "but this is made clear from the start" - but then what is the point of this book?
An inspirational rollercoaster of a read! - Rated
As other reviewers have pointed out, if you're actually looking for a detailed, genuinely "impartial" history of Britain then I'd recommend looking elsewhere (a few clues about the nature and narrative of this book can be found on the inside cover before you've even started). I was simply looking for an interesting read and was more than happy to be taken along for the ride - which had me gasping out loud, laughing and even crying at times. I loved the informative, passionate and humorous style of the book and the very human descriptions of the "characters" and the situations they found themselves in. I feel as though I've learned a lot (I feel compelled to point out that I'm not a complete simpleton, it's just that history wasn't exactly my strong point at school...) and now I've finished I've been inspired to do some further reading on some of the fascinating people and events I've encountered here.
So in my opinion, a fantastic read and well worth the purchase.
|
