An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)

Review Summary: Great if you can get past the jokes!

Review:

I bought this book assuming that it would be a fairly humorous and fluffy take on history. I almost immediately put it down due to the stupid, obvious, dud jokes that litter every page. I had written it off entirely, but dipped back into it about a week later, and was surprised to find myself really enjoying the historical aspects of the book. There is an unwritten format to the whole thing, in which the author presents received history, then gives his own take on the situation, often with some recent evidence, then tosses in some stale gags.

If you can get past the puns the history is quite interesting, but it was the author's opinions and commentaries that kept me going. Time and again new perspectives caught me unawares. I'm certainly no history buff, so it may be old hat to many of you, but reading comparisons of Julius Caesar's ruthless execution of Germanic civilians to twentieth century war crimes or accounts of viking raids to North Africa really got my imagination going. You'll notice neither of these were in Britain - the author's tendency to deviate out into backstory provides a great deal of interesting material. If only he had left out the jokes!

Review Summary: Very, very funny

Review:

A fantastic book for anyone who has an interest in British history and has a sense of humour. If you already have at least a basic level of knowledge of any period of British history pre-1945 and are looking for a book which is an easy and light hearted read then this is for you. It is crammed full of comedy based upon Ancient and 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.

Review Summary: Good substitute for fiction at bedtime

Review:

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 and is a good a book to snuggle up in bed with as any, but I found the jokes were sometimes lacking and 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 subject in 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 and a little more boring.
A good read overall but a little over-done.

Review Summary: Ponderous text, predictable humour

Review:

Whilst the subject matter of this book (Britain's distant history - present day) is presented in 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 witty in such a pedestrian way - cheap predictable joke after cheap predictable joke. I expected better.

Review Summary: The best history book there is... I don't like history.

Review:

This book takes 2000 years of British (mostly English) history, and 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 and dates which formed some kind of list of what order things just happened to happen in.

It's very funny, mostly in 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 but in an intelligent rather than a mindless bulldog way. There's massive helpings of satire and 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.