Customer Reviews
Very, very funny - By: R. Butler, 30 Nov 2008 
A fantastic book for anyone who has an interestin British history & has a sense of humour. If you already have at least a basic level of knowledge of any period of British history pre-1945 & are looking for a book which is an easy & light hearted read then this is for you. It is crammed full of comedy based upon Ancient & Roman Britain right up to WWII. The entire book is divided into small sections, on average I'd estimate about 2 pages each, which makes it perfect for quick snatches of humour whenever you have a spare couple of minutes. Personally, I couldn't put it down - I found it to be a real page turner.
Highly recommended.
Good substitute for fiction at bedtime - By: Makayla, 11 Nov 2008 
Though it claims to be witty, I'm afraid I can't add to the glowing reports of this book. This is not to say that it is an awful book, merely that I found it hard to engage with the style of John O'Farrell.
The reading is light & is a good a book to snuggle upin bed with as any, but I found the jokes were sometimes lacking & repetitive.
In terms of information I can't say that it was controversial to anything I have so far studied. It was hardly detailed but this is understandable with how much information was crammed into the tome.
John O'Farrell attempts to see history from a low-class point of view- a difficult challenge considering the mediocre information to be found on the subjectin many eras- but I think he labours his point on 'upper-class' idiots a little too much, making his witty remarks at little less witty & a little more boring.
A good read overall but a little over-done.
Ponderous text, predictable humour - By: Paula, 10 Nov 2008 
Whilst the subject matter of this book (Britain's distant history - present day) is presentedin a palatable way, the allegedly 'humorous' asides have made this read, at best, disappointing. I was prepared for this book to be witty (I've read some of John O'Farrell's other work), but not wittyin such a pedestrian way - cheap predictable joke after cheap predictable joke. I expected better.
The best history book there is... I don't like history. - By: Mr. Stuart Bruce, 29 Oct 2008 This book takes 2000 years of British (mostly English) history, & is sarcastic about it. What the TV show "Have I Got News For You" does for the last 7 days, this book does for two millennia (in 500 pages).
I've never seen the point of reading about history. Although people say that it's about learning important lessons from the past to benefit all our futures, to me it always seemed like a long list of pointless names & dates which formed some kind of list of what order things just happened to happen in.
It's very funny, mostlyin very witty ways (though there are a couple of cringeworthy puns), yet it's full of factual information that really does make it feel like you're learning something. It's patriotic butin an intelligent rather than a mindless bulldog way. There's massive helpings of satire & plenty of comparisons to modern-day news events.
It drags a bit around the year 1600 (but I think that's the fault of history itself rather than the book) but the World War stuff is genuinely moving. A really worthwhile read.
This is the only history book I'll ever need. In fact it's the only history book I'll ever read.
It's not often I give a book up after reading 50 pages...... - By: Head Coach, 24 Oct 2008 
..... but I did with this one. I bought it because a friend said it was hilarious. I found it really irritating having some reasonable historic insight interspersed with purile humour, mostly revolving around repeated incarnations of essentially the same joke. It just goes to show that different people find different things funny! I hope someone who likes this sort of humour bought it from the Oxfam shop where I sent my copy.
