Unruly

A History of England's Kings and Queens

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This will be the most refreshing, entertaining history of England you'll have ever read.

Certainly, the funniest.

Because David Mitchell will explain how it is not all names, dates or ungraspable historical headwinds, but instead show how it's really just a bunch of random stuff that happened with a few lucky bastards ending up on top. Some of these bastards were quite strange, but they were in charge, so we quite literally lived, and often still live, by their rules.

It's a great story. And it's our story. If you want to know who we are in modern Britain, you need to read this book.

Unruly is part Horrible Histories part jolly romp guided by Alan Bennett. Perhaps this is how history should be done: not by patient scholars, but by free-swearing actor-comedians cramming more ideas and jokes into their pages than many professionals have committed to print in their careers.
Guardian

Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and razor sharp. Mitchell - a funny man and a skilled historian - tells stories that are interesting and fun. His rants alone are worth the price of the book. And amid all the jokes and delightful nonsense, Mitchell sneaks in a serious message about English identity. Here is Horrible Histories for grownups - stripped of their finery, devoid of reverence, UNRULY's monarchs emerge as mortals with ordinary flaws. I learnt a lot and laughed a lot, and people who have never before picked up a history book will read and enjoy this one. That's an accomplishment
Gerard DeGroot, The Times

About David Mitchell

David Mitchell is a BAFTA Award-winning actor, writer and comedian who has starred in many of the UK's best-loved TV shows, including Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Upstart Crow. He is a team captain on Would I Lie to You? (BBC One), the host of The Unbelievable Truth on Radio 4 and one of the Observer's most popular columnists. Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens is his first history book.

Details

Imprint: Penguin
Published: 23/05/2024
ISBN: 9781405953191
Length: 448 pages
Dimensions: 198mm x 29mm x 130mm
Weight: 344g
Price: £10.99

All editions

Unruly

A History of England's Kings and Queens

Format:

Buy the book from:

Unruly is part Horrible Histories part jolly romp guided by Alan Bennett. Perhaps this is how history should be done: not by patient scholars, but by free-swearing actor-comedians cramming more ideas and jokes into their pages than many professionals have committed to print in their careers.

Full of jokes and canny insights, 100 per cent sparkier and more revernt than your school textbooks

An enjoyable, rollicking read, definitely not a conventional history book

I don’t think anyone other than David Mitchell could have written this book. It’s clever, funny and makes you think quite differently about history we thought we knew

By turns fascinating and funny - there is a jewel of an insight or a refreshing blast of clarifying wit on every page. David brings a delightfully contrary and hilariously cantankerous eye to the history of the English Monarchy. Informative, illuminating and very very funny

Mitchell clearly knows his history, with a book that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Simon Schama

A Peep Show history of England

Chatty, irreverent and liberally sprinkled with gags and opinions. Horrible Histories with added swearing.

**I can’t recommend this book enough. Very funny and interesting, it is above all a proper work of history**

About David Mitchell

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