An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge) - Books (John O'Farrell, Paperback)

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

Gary B
U.K.
5th January 2009

Not very funny

I almost gave up reading this book after 50 pages because of the appalling attempts at humour. However, I persevered, and it is a good summary of British history, and in the end I enjoyed it. There are about two terrible jokes per page, but eventually you can see them coming and just skip to the end of the paragraph. The author has created a 95% readable account of the period from 55BC to 1945 AD - worth reading.

Britwit
Wales
21st December 2008

Suoperficially humorous; insidiously bilious
Initially, in the BC era, I found Mr Farrell's writing quite humorous. Then it became tiresome, as the not very subtle comments started to focus on the author's republican leanings. Then it became downright bilious, as he pursued his Socialist dogma. If you are a Socialist, or Guardian reader, you will love it; attacking everyone from Gladstone to Thatcher. However, please note, although he only covers history to 1945, he still manages snipes at Margaret Thatcher - get a life Mr Farrell! If you are anywhere politically right of Lenin, you will be funding the bile of yet another product of a State Grammar School, of which I am one, who has become wealthy through pretending he has a background steeped in deprivation caused by Conservative misdemeanours throughout history. It is such a shame, because the subject held such great potential.

HeatherB
Aberdeen, UK
15th December 2008

Felt like an eternity
Reading this was a long hard slog. Parts were confused and not explained fully. Not much history of the other 4 countries that make up Great Britain. I had the feeling that much of this was just regurgitated notes with added sarcasm.

Dave
Cheshire UK
15th December 2008

Original & captivating
I picked this book at the airport for absolutely no reason other than the fact I hadn't looked at anything historical since my high school days. I started it briefly while waiting to depart & instantly it struck me as easy to read & quite comical. I managed to completely read this whole book by the time I had returned home off this holiday as all the way through my holiday I was taking time out to dip into this , it was informative in a fun way, the way you should get taught at school ( in my oppinion ) It's now over 6 months since I finished this book & I can still remember so many facts about the British history & am often pushing this book onto my friends to read who also seem to love his dry humour. Buy this book for your kids if they think history is boring as this got me googling key battles trying to read more into things, or just buy this to entertain yourself as I did on a journey.

J. M. Simpson
Edinburgh
3rd December 2008

Great if you can get past the jokes!
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!