Stay In More............................................Book Review

AN UTTERLY IMPARTIAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN (John O’Farrell)

24-03-2008

After breaking through with "Things can Only Get Better" - a chronicle of 18 miserable years as a Labour supporter - John O'Farrell has become one of our wittiest satirical writers.  Andy Goff revels in his latest release.

Finishing a great book always leaves me feeling bereft – like an old friend who has enriched your life and moved away, but with whom you’ll probably be in contact again in the future, but for now is lost to you.

That’s how I felt when I finished John O’Farrell’s “An Utterly Impartial History of Britain”.

The alternative title is “2000 years of upper class idiots in charge”.

What a tour de force.

O’Farrell covers British history from the dawning of humanity on these sceptred isles to the end of the Second World War. He delivers a succinct, amusing and subjective view of how we came to be the island race we are.

Plainly no fan of royal families, racism, fascism, communism or any other ‘ism’, he writes about history in a way few others have been able.

I love books with footnotes – “Heligoland is a small archipelago off the coast of Germany. Not to be confused with Legoland, Windsor, which remains a British territory leased by the Danish”.

And did you know that eight members of Gladstone’s first cabinet sported beards?

He writes in an easy to read, easy to understand flowing style and, what I found particularly interesting about O’Farrell’s book is that it is written for a “British” audience. Perhaps I should say a “British, Radio 4” audience.

To fully understand the nuances of his writing one needs to be of certain age and a certain background. A reference to “You and Yours” would surely fly over the heads of the average American.

He litters the narrative with imagined conversations and “what ifs”. What if the French Army had made a successful landing in Bantry Bay in 1796? The history of Britain would have been somewhat different to how things turned out.

What if Churchill hadn’t stayed silent in front of Neville Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and the Tory chief whip when Nev asked Winnie if he would serve under Lord Halifax? I’d be writing this in German? Well, er, no. It wouldn’t be being written at all.

I didn’t realise that Henry VIII, a bit like the Pope, remained a Catholic.

Eeeee, if history had been taught like this when I were a lad………

I thoroughly recommend this as a great read, informative and funny. And I only spotted one typo.

Have you read it?  Any other great reads you want to recommend?  Leave a comment on The Stirrer Forum.