An Utterly Impartial History of Britain

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View books by John O'Farrell.

1066 and All That Rides Again (with one big difference) - Rated
"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.

Fun and not too challenging - Rated
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.

Laugh out loud - Rated
There are so few books that make me laugh out loud - but this is definitely top of the list. Not only is it hilarious - the flippant and often sarcatic asides are brilliant - but it actually makes you learn something about history. As a bit of a history buff myself (very amateur) there is so much I don't know and this is such a fun way to learn more. I can't recommend it highly enough. John O'Farrell for PM I say.

Another example of where we are going wrong! Teachers will love this! - Rated
Im not going to spend too much time on this. This is another book that I am sure will go a long way to helping undermine what it means to be English (or British - however you wish you to look at it, but its the English that get the majority of the bashing as per usual)

If you are a parent and want to teach your kids the history of our once great nation, please avoid books like this. Its no wonder no one cares about this country anymore - read this if you want to raise ungrateful, uncultured and confused kids. Does no one else find it dangerous to fill everyone, especially our youth with this "hate who we were" propagandist, left-wing dogma?

Ok, so its funny. I even laughed myself. But as someone who has spent 26 years studying the history of these lands and has still emerged feeling proud of our past, please dont let this book be your first "view" on who we are or where we came from.

Love our history - it actually made us something more than just the laughing stock of Western Europe. Im sure academics, teachers and politicians will love this book.

History from a modern liberals point of view. - Rated
If you like your history written from a politicaly correct, lefty liberal, anti Daily Mail point of view, this is the book for you. I kept wanting to throw it out of the train window.
Otherwise someone/anyone else. Simon Schama perhaps.