Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens
Ratings55
Average rating4
Might be an unfair rating as I zoned out almost half the book on several flights.
The audiobook narration by the author was good.
This was great!! A funny, quick and quirky account of England's monarchs.
David Mitchell narrates it himself which is even better!
A fun light stroll through the early rulers of England, as a non-Brit there was even more for me to learn here. Like I never knew that these so called “English” are really just a bunch of French Vikings.
He manages to straddle the line between making fun of these puffed up larger than life characters while still giving credit where it's due. By placing them in the context of their time he actually manages to humanise these quasi-mythological royals, something that is easy to forget when someone is such a large part of history. His treatment of Edward III stands out to me as the best example of this.
I had fun, and I could spend all day reading David Mitchell's asides.
History written by my crotchety old Uncle (David Mithcell is younger than I am) and he reads like Bill Bryson, funny, opinionated, and never boring. I think I will be reading this one a second time, or dipping in to it again quite soon.
5/5 - A brief but incredibly witty account of England's Kings and Queens up until the Elizabethean era. Very well balanced throughout between comedic and factual moments, made some of the more dry aspects of history entertaining! I'm hoping David Mitchell will continue this hilarious account of the rest of the monarchy until present day.
Kings Behaving Badly: David Mitchell's Hilariously Uncouth “Unruly” Romps Through England's Royal Rippers
Leave your stiff upper lip at the palace gates before entering comedian David Mitchell's latest marauding monster of a book, the aptly named “Unruly”—a bloody brilliant takedown of England's barmy monarchs over the centuries.
Mitchell himself pops out intermittently like some court jester to poke fun at the whole rotten lot of them, comparing the Saxon-Viking skirmishes to “disentangling a very long string of Christmas lights” and dubbing the War of the Roses as a scrap where “the roses couldn't do any of the fighting themselves...Still, pricks can draw blood and the aristocracy was full of them.”
We journey through the muck and mire of English history only to discover its castle-dwelling rulers were mainly vain, incompetent, greedy tossers who believed divine intervention put them a cut above their groveling subjects. From mythical King “Didn't Actually Exist” Arthur through Henry VIII (he of the bloated ego and skinny legs) right up to Elizabeth “Please God, Not Another Bloody Tudor” I, the bodies stacked up in heaps but fawning genealogists kept scraping new candidates from the royal barrel.
Mitchell skewers these blue bloods without mercy, comparing Celtic rebel Caratacus to “Braveheart's shitter little brother” and tagging King John as “delightfully” deserving of his reputation as utter shit. In Mitchell's hands, the likes of William the Conquerer and his invading Norman elites were merely “thieving thugs” shaking down peasants for “tribute.” And Magna Carta, that fabled guarantor of rights and checks on tyrants? Ha! More like a handy guide for handling highborn halfwits according to Mitchell.
Those seeking the pomp and pageantry found in conventional chronicles best trot off to the palace gift shop for your crown-emblazoned trinkets. But for a hysterically foul-mouthed flogging of England's most notorious sovereigns, delivered with Mitchell's trademark wit by one of Britain's sharpest comedians, “Unruly” earns its place in the royal library, even if the queen herself would not approve.
Just don't read aloud Mitchell's nicknames for monarchs post-regicide Charles I (“Hitler fan Edward VIII”) or flatulence-prone George IV (“one man pie shop”) lest your Tower of London accommodations have a dampness issue. As Mitchell himself writes, “Having kings is an awful system.” And he's bloody well right.
So, this wasn???t a bad overview of the concept of monarchy as it applies to the UK, which, arguably, has the most famous and most popular monarchy in the world at the moment. Mitchell digs into how UK monarchy got set up in the first place, and where its roots actually lie: not in anything so grand as the legend of King Arthur or in the divine right of kings, but just people trying to cobble together a (relatively) sensible government out of anarchy. He argues that this might apply to monarchy in general, as a system, and therefore any crowned heads of state do not really deserve the immense respect they are granted in the present day. He aims this at the current UK royal family, but I can see this extending to other current monarchies elsewhere, and not just in Europe.
One thing that might not sit right with readers is the author???s politics. He considers himself left-of-center, but there are moments when his stance will either chafe at the reader, or enrage entirely. I also suspect some readers might think he???s too cynical in parts, while others might argue he???s not being cynical enough. I personally found his stances mostly tolerable, though there were moments when they made me a mite twitchy.
Overall, this wasn???t a bad read; the author???s done his research, and he lays out the history of the early UK monarchy in a way that I found entertaining and interesting enough to get through. However, he???s also very clear about his politics, so YMMV on whether or not you can tolerate his writing.
This was fantastic! Not many History books can make you expel coffee through your nose....this one can! Whilst giving a good recounting off the Kings and Queens who ruled or maybe didn't from Celtic origins through to the end of the Tudors! Will be one I revisit frequently.