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| Author: John O'farrell
Publisher: Black Swan
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.86
You Save: £4.13 (52%)
New (36) Used (12) from £1.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Sales Rank: 112
Media: Paperback
Pages: 592
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.6
ISBN: 0552773964
EAN: 9780552773966
ASIN: 0552773964
Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not only a fantastic read - but inspiring to!!! October 19, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
When I first started to read this book I momentarily wondered if I was going to cope with the mix of humour and history. I needn't have worried. As I began to get into the ebb and flow of the book I thoroughly enjoyed the light hearted but at the same time educational stroll through most of the major historical events of Great Britain. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the read; I laughed out loud more than once. More than that though the book left me inspired and thirsty to read more history! What more can you ask of a book. Throughly recommended...
Best history book since - well ever ? October 14, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A must read - satirical, current and yet also educational.
Perhaps a bit on the long side, but otherwise perfect
On here to buy another book by this author
 Entertaining and informative October 7, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book . Obviously you can't expect to have a very detailed account of 2000 years of history in just over 500 pages, but I found it informative in that there were a lot of things I didn't know. OK, perhaps some of them weren't really worth knowing, and maybe the historica acuracy was questionable in places, but as a light-hearted 'potted history' I thought it worked well. Humour is very subjective and I see that several reviewers of this book didn't think it was at all funny, but I was quite amused and after I'd read out several 'funny bits' to my husband he decided he had to read it for himself. He wasn't as enthusiastic as me as he prefers more heavyweight reading, but I really enjoyed it. As someone else has said, history books can be very dry and boring and this was a refreshing change.
 Not as funny as it thinks it is... September 21, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is not as funny as it thinks it is. In the preface the author claims it is very different from the classic 1066 and All That. I would agree. That one was funny and just the right length. This I found too long. About two thirds of the way through it was becoming a real slog. Yes, there were parts that made me snort with laughter, but by and large it was a bit tedious and I really had to dig in deep to force myself to finish it.
The history, man September 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is a sad commentary on the teaching profession that so many English people find their own history so boring. The Irish, Welsh and Scots endlessly argue about their history and what it says about their current situation, but English people generally are pretty ignorant about what makes them, well, English. John O'Farrell has a mission to re-ignite some interest and understanding this actually quite gripping subject. He re he takes on the persona of an enthusiastic young-ish history teacher, probably wearing a wooly jumper, to re-tell the last 2000 years of British (or as he confesses, mostly English) history. He spices up the tale throughout with mock-dialogue, pop culture references and anachronous quips. Surprisingly this doesn't get wearing, though this is a long book. The story is fairly conventionally told, all kings and queens and great men, no space for revisionism and only odd flashes of explanation. Nonetheless it reads like a novel and throughout there is a firm insight into the arbitrary lottery of history. The book concludes at the end of the Second World War, undoubtedly Britain's `finest hour' and therefore on an upbeat and surprisingly nationalist note.
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