|
 |
 |
Books... & more |
|
|
|
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)
Rating:  -
I had given this book to my mother for Christmas last year and she loved it so much that she decided that I should read it.
Well I might not always agree with my mother but this time it is an exception. It is really a great book to read.
Well it would seem quite daunting to read 2000 years of British History but O'Farrell does it brilliantly. 552 pages and I never for a moment felt those school time episodes when you would like to disappear rather to stick out another single word from that teacher.
History is told in a comical exhilarating way. Full of facts without every being boring or overwhelming. On the contrary it made me search on internet for more facts.
I was fascinated by his now and again explanations of certain expressions or words that we use today but have come a long way through history.
I would recommended it as a school text book because it will finally take away the dullness that most of us had to endure while studying history and instill in those who read it the eagerness to know more (which is what teaching should actually be about especially history).
One episode really made me laugh and think. At the end of the book O'Farrell describes the British way of disagreeing with something. So you would like to start with writing to a local newspaper, then a petition and if you really feel strongly about it "there's always the poster in the front window".
I laughed because that is what I do.
Probably here O'Farrell would have something funny to say as how we ex-British colonies have acquired the bizarre customs of the British Empire and eventually export it to wherever we go obliviously of how silly or alien those methods can seem to others.
Rating: -
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)
I wish this book had been around during my school years, I'm sure it would have helped my History teacher to find a sense of humour. There are no dreary lists of dates, battles and monarchs here - From 55BC to 1945 O'Farrell takes us through the ages on a witty, laugh-out loud romp and makes our history fun as well as interesting with "all that stuff you've vaguely heard about but never quite understood..."
Only one disappointment the book ends in 1945 but I see this is rectified with the new book.
Highly recommend it. If you liked "1066 and all That" - you'll love this one.
Rating:  -
If you really do subscribe to the Marxist view of history, as O'Farrell does, then I'm sure you'll find this desperately funny, with gags about Thatcher (ooh, so evil). If you wanted something to laugh at and don't come from that particular perspective, then you may find yourself wondering what the other reviewers were on about. I certainly did. O'Farrell has wit, certainly, but it's wit of the kind we can get plenty of elsewhere from the likes of Marcus Brigstocke and practically any Radio 4 comedian.
Two stars instead of one because he really is trying, just as he is trying with his spoof news website NewsBiscuit. Just as The Daily Mash is far better than Newsbiscuit, there's plenty of other stuff that's funnier than this book.
Rating:  -
Strangely, I find myself able to sympathise with many reviewers, both the lovers and the loathers. I'm not a Guardian reader, so O'Farrell was new to me; nor do I have a left wing chip on my shoulder, so I had to learn where he was coming from and make allowances. And in fairness I should confess that my awareness of history is patchy: school concentrated on the Tudors without igniting any hidden bonfires in me (not enough football and cricket for a start). Late in life I have woken up to what I was missing and now, prompted often by a favourable review, my reading includes rewarding dips into random periods and people; just how random may be discerned from my contributions to this forum. Interestingly, C J Ransom's fictional Sheldrake quartet has sent me back to the Tudors with fresh appetite.
However, overarching history, from Caesar to Churchill, had a lot of blanks which O'Farrell's book has helped to rectify. And having lived through a slice of the later chapters, I have had some yardstick to measure by. As history, then, two thousand years in five hundred pages, it is inevitably somewhat superficial but has some smart ideas for identifying threads.
Which leaves the vexed question of the humour. Reviewers who have called it repetitive are correct but only up to a point. O'Farrell has a trick of adding to a list of important basics a ludicrous item of utter banality. It should become irritating but I have to admit that I laughed much more often than not. So beware: these are four stars awarded from a very personal standpoint.
Rating: -
This does for British history what Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything did for science. It covers a huge amount of ground and frequently suffers because there's no real depth to any of the coverage, whereas Bryson occasionally focused more on a particular area giving a bit of a break from the relentless pace. There are flashes of absolute genius in the writing, extremely funny throwaway lines that have had me laughing in a number of cafes and forms of transport, but some of the jokes are flagged so far away that it gets painful.
Little changes would have made the book a lot more readable, and improved the educational elements. Things like clearer signposting of dates, even some timelines in a glossary or something. There were a number of times when I suffered plot loss, not really knowing what was going on; it was still funny, but I didn't necessarily know why.
Overall - a good read and laugh out loud funny, but there are a few irritating flaws that mean it's best read in relatively short instalments.
 
An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge)
|
|
|
