A cantankerous history of Britain by one of our most popular humorists
Many of us were put off history by the dry and dreary way it was taught at school. Back then 'The Origins of the Industrial Revolution' somehow seemed less compelling than the chance to test the bold claim on Timothy Johnson's 'Shatterproof' ruler. But here at last is a chance to have a good laugh and learn all that stuff you feel you really ought to know by now...In this "Horrible History for Grown Ups" you can read how Anglo-Saxon liberals struggled to be positive about immigration; 'Look I think we have to try and respect the religious customs of our new Viking friends - oi, he's nicked my bloody ox!' Discover how England's peculiar class system was established by some snobby French nobles whose posh descendents still have wine cellars and second homes in the Dordogne today.And explore the complex socio-economic reasons why Britain's kings were the first in Europe to be brought to heel; (because the Stuarts were such a useless bunch of untalented, incompetent, arrogant, upper-class thickoes that Parliament didn't have much choice.)

A book about then that is also incisive and illuminating about now, "2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge", is a hilarious, informative and cantankerous journey through Britain' fascinating and bizarre history. As entertaining as a witch burning, and a lot more laughs.
When a historian says ‘Waterloo’, do you automatically think of Abba?

Do you wonder how Neville chamberlain failed to realize that Hitler was a baddie when the Fuhrer was so clearly wearing a Nazi armband?

And why did the Normans fight the Saxons at a place called ‘Battle?’did they just see the road signs and just think that’s where they were supposed to go?

From 55 BC to 1945, An Utterly Impartial History of Britain informs, explains, but most of all laughs at the seemingly incomprehensible rollercoaster of events that make up the story of Great Britain. Packed with great characters trapped in impossible dilemmas, this true-life drama will have you on the edge of your seats thinking ‘I wonder which of them dies at the end?’ (Well, they all do obviously. It was ages ago.)

As entertaining as a witch burning and a lot more laughs.

‘Mum, Dad, the Second Crusade is starting! Can we put a St George’s flag on the cart?’
‘No dear, we don’t want everyone to think Daddy is a builder.’
John O’Farrell studied history at Desborough Comprehensive, where he got a B in his O level. He later continued his research by watching lots of programmes about the Nazis on the UK History Channel.
Apart from that he has published three novels, a memoir and three collections of his popular Guardian column. A former comedy scriptwriter for such shows as Spitting Image and Smith and Jones, he is the founder of the satirical website NewsBiscuit and can occasionally be spotted on such TV programmes as Grumpy Old Men, Newsnight Review and Have I Got News For You.

Customer Rating:
Summary: New Farrell Fan
Comment: Never before have I opened a history book, and I've opened a few, and laughed out loud as I've read.
Page after page of well known history with dashes of uncommon knowledge are laced with the author's humorous takes on what our ancestors did.
If you are unfamiliar with our past, then this will easily give you all the kind of stuff in memorable fashion that will leave you feeling like a true history buff. If you are familiar with what has gone before I would still encourage you to venture into this offbeat and wonderful examination of the highlights and lowlights of our history.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Finally a history education i enjoyed
Comment: You can't help learning something with this book. it's well written, intelligent, funny, utterly impartial of course, and full of all the stuff you slept thru at school made interesting. just back from 2-weeks in northern France i was a fount of knowledge about William the Conqueror, Richard the Lion Heart, Normans, and English and French royalty.

And the most important thing i feel is that i have left this book with an interest awakened in the world around me rather than viewing the history of our country and it's neighbours as a subject i didn't take beyond GCSE.

Just what i was waiting for without realising it :)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Save money and re-read 1066 and all that
Comment: You have a spare summer and fancy writing a book but can't be bothered with all that creative muse malarky. It's a bit too soon for the autobiography( still working on doing the X-factor and the Big Brother application and frankly not so hot on the sports front) so what do you do? Well you pop along to the local reference library and sort out a stack of What the Roman's did for us, Great Kings and Queens of England, Prime Minsters I have known, and write a comic History of Britain for History refusniks. This is what John O'Farrell attempts to do in An Utterly Impartial History of Britain: (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge). As you failed English know ( for Americans and other ex colonial types, local joke so ignore) when we mention Britain we really mean England except if one of you win an Olympic medal so you still have time to fit in one for Scotland, Wales or Ireland.

The question is, does it work as comedy, history or even comedic history? The gold standard is 1066 and All That and frankly, the book struggles in comparison. Both draw on popular memories of what is history and make it the raw material for humour. The historical factoids of the O'Farrell book do make it ideal for a bathroom read as you can dip in and out as nature calls. But the John O'Farrell humour of Blackadderish quips and asides* can grate unlike1066 and All That.**

Well does it work as History? Er...not really. If you had more interesting things to do at school, it does give you a simple overview of English History. If you paid attention then the lack of accuracy (Read the Terry Deary Horrid History series to see how its done properly) or the one-dimensional nature of the account soon irritates. One particular annoying clanger is the myth that the Anglo-Saxons wiped out the Romano-Celtic language and culture. The 0rigins of the British by Stephen Oppenheimer based on genetic evidence show that the SW and Wales, Southern England and the North had separate and long-standing separate waves of settlement. Meaning that the natives that the Romans met in the south were of Germanic origin and hence why so little Celtic influence in place names and English. I could go about his slighting reference to the King James Bible (an attempt to head off the radical puritans translations), his failure to address the social-religious movements of the English Civil War and their impact and don't get me started on his nonsense of the first World War. Yes, I did pay attention in History and so what if you were more popular in school.

So any redeeming features? It does have several serious asides about the lack of social justice; we the working people rarely get a look in on political and social power until perhaps the English Civil war and then struggled to get universal franchise until 1948(when students having two votes was abolished). But, this was done much better by the classic Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson.

If you do get hold of a copy, pass it on to your teenagers who might at last get a sense what Sir was droning on about. As for you, its raining so get down and write the history that John O'Farrell didn't write. As for you few Americans still here, read about your own forgotten past in A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn.

Remembering that humour is subjective here are other viewpoints:

* Well researched, very funny book, which was a joy as holiday reading. Frequently laugh-out-loud. Highly enjoyable.

** a book full of silly upper-class-twit jokes. (Haw-haw! What will Master think!) .Anyway, for us who are more prosaically born and raised, this book offers no reward other than insight into the childhood of a frivolous (if Oxonian) class of recently and soon to be dead English aristocracy.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: 1066 and All That Rides Again (with one big difference)
Comment: "1066 and All That" was the title of a spoof history text written in the 1930s that was less than accurate, to put it mildly, but which remained in print due to its humour for over 50 years.

John O'Farrell does write with accuracy as to the facts, but he is never less than entertaining, and frequently hilarious as to his very personal interpretations of them. This is a book that you can dip into, and almost any page will bring up a fact of which you were almost certainly previously unaware. (Want to know which English King possibly became an Italian monk? This will tell you.)

If you wanted a book to support and stimulate an older teenager's interest in history, this would be the one, but you may wish to keep it for yourself. Easy to pick up, and very, very difficult to put down.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun and not too challenging
Comment: I was a bit suprised to read the negative reviews, I found this book to be fairly impartial - obviously John O'Farrell does have opinions but they are at least written with a sense of humour!
What you get as a reader is enough infomation to appear fairly knowledgable (with a bit of bluff if you happen to be caught with a history bore!) about almost any period up until 1945, certainly enough interesting facts to oohh and err at, enough to get you through a fundraising type quiz and enough of an opener to get you searching for more facts if that particular period strikes you as interesting.
I found myself loving every minute of it up until WW1 when I glazed over, just as I did at school, politics rather than people - but no, John O' Farrell did keep personalities in and I saw it through to the end.

It's a bit of a romp through history, nothing tedious enough to make you put the book down and plenty to get you typing keywords into google to find out more. Easy Peasy read with plenty of chuckles along the way.

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