Unruly: The Number One Bestseller ‘Horrible Histories for grownups’ The Times

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The psychological impact of this was particularly tough on Henry VI and, at the news of the collapse of England’s position in France, he too collapsed and was reduced to an inert blob, needing to be fed and washed and moved about for over a year. Worryingly the country was better governed during that year than at any other time during the reign. How this happened, who it happened to and why the hell it matters in twenty-first-century Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and is damned if he'll let it off the hook for the mess it's made of everything. In a way, this is very much the gist of his book, though because he is a comedian, he has the talent to turn these "sad stories" into ironic, tongue-in-cheek, profane, practical, unscientific and very entertaining. Discover who we are and how we got here in comedian, star of Peep Show and student of history David Mitchell’s UNRULY: A History of England’s Kings and Queens– a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain. But this ruthlessness, while showing ambition and vigour, was no barrier to incompetence or vainglorious delusion. For most of the middle ages from the Norman Conquest onwards, the kings of England were obsessed with acquiring or re-acquiring large sections of France. They went so far as to claim that they were in fact the rightful kings of France despite all the evidence to the contrary and repeatedly threw all their resources into mounting military expeditions to ruin the lives of thousands of innocent French residents which achieved, in even the medium term, precisely nothing.

The downside? Much like I imagine Shakespeare's fan base did in the late 16th century, I found myself asking "do we really need yet another Henry?"; the middle is a bit of a stogey haze of indistinguishable Henrys, or Johns or Edwards, who fought the French, lost, and died of dysentery, only for the little brats they spawned to repeat the whole futile cycle, in seeming perpetuity. Perhaps the author is making this point, i.e. that it was all futile, by repeating this refrain: one king, one pointless war, one gruesome and untimely death, one thirty minute chapter about someone I've bever heard of and won't remember, I just wished he could have done so slighty more succinctly. This is fitting to those who just want to dip their fingers into a bit of history, as well as those who love any period that is covered. Mitchell draws parallels between rulers in history and sprinkles wonderful insights amongst his recounting of the main events of each monarch's rule. Discover who we are and how we got here in comedian and student of history David Mitchell's Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain. His narrative begins, boldly, with a king who didn’t exist. “Gandalf is fictional,” Mitchell writes. “Arthur is a lie.” And yet lies, myths and medieval PR makeovers are what make this story compelling: England created itself from its own myths, while simultaneously satirically debunking them. To that end, Mitchell quotes Dennis, a character in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who skewers the allure of Camelot: “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.”How this happened, who it happened to and why it matters in modern Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history – and won’t let it off the hook for the mess it’s made. David Mitchell is a riot, and his review of the history of the monarchy had me absolutely rolling. It’s quite a feat to be both hilarious and exceptionally accurate when writing a book like this, but Mitchell has managed it with aplomb. And despite being a laugh-a-minute, the humor never veers into the obnoxious and never feels try-hard. His story ends with the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, though you’d think there are more fascinatingly terrible kings and queens that need to be accounted for, not least Hitler fan Edward VIII, one-man pie shop George IV, and – if Olivia Colman’s turn in The Favourite is anything to go by – bonkers woman-baby Queen Anne. He’s a smart guy in some ways but really dumb in others, he’s arrogant enough to believe otherwise. I would read another book by him about medieval history if he promised not to pontificate about modern issues (or include any pop culture references, which are uniformly embarrassing) Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.

Kingship, despite the crown, robes, processions, coaches, trumpets and anthems, has often been an undignified activity – all the more so because it’s supposed to be dignified. Throughout the middle ages, our rulers supposedly had the endorsement of God, which made their failures all the more humiliating. King Alfred, the first king to lay claim to ruling the English as a people and the only English king to have been issued with the epithet “Great”, nevertheless spent a large part of his early reign hiding from the Vikings in a bog – by which I mean a marsh.How this happened, who it happened to, and why the hell it matters are all questions that Mitchell answers with brilliance, wit, and the full erudition of a man who once studied history—and won’t let it off the hook for the mess it’s made. Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and razor sharp.Mitchell [is] a funny man and a skilled historian.”― The Times I can't recommend this book enough. Very funny and interesting, it is above all a proper work of history' - Charlie Higson

Unruly seems fine-tuned to annoy prigs and pedants such as myself – and yet, despite a set of cultural references firmly wedged in the latter half of the previous century, there is refreshing candour in how it calls out the bastards, bullies and brats who have donned England’s highest-carat hats. Above all, it’s a funny read, playful and well-meaning. And while it corrects a few schoolboy errors en route, it’s most interested in why we make them in the first place. Did the Vikings have horns on their helmets? Well, Mitchell writes, “in every possible way, other than the literal truth, they totally had horns on their helmets”. Mitchell clearly knows his history, with a book that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Simon Schama' - Andrew Marr When he finally expired and all the important people had legged it to try and secure their futures under whatever the new regime turned out to be, his attendants stripped the room, and corpse, of anything of value, and then fled. There lay the Conqueror, naked and alone and beginning to decompose. Bleak. Discover who we are and how we got here by listening to comedian and student of history David Mitchell's UNRULY: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain. The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.The book was very well researched and was written in a mostly engaging way, some of the info is complicated if you are not already into medieval history but this book made it easy to read and understand. It seems like he has researched the topic well. He also draws some interesting conclusions about the time. All in all this was a five star experience of a book to read Bombs the equivalent to 2 Little Boys were dropped by the Israel down the Gaza killing tens of thousand of Palestinian civilians ! In fact I’d argue that all historians who say they haven’t chosen a side are more misleading in an insidious way, as they definitely have done even if they don’t know it."

Edward’s penchant for forceful solutions extended into the administrative arena where, Mitchell suggests, he waged a “war on nuance”. The same could be said of Mitchell’s portrayal of a sovereign whose reform of English law and currency mark him out as one of our nation’s most complex and important. This doesn’t really matter, though: like many of the characterisations in Unruly: A History of England’s Kings and Queens, presenting Edward as the medieval world’s answer to Robin Smith is accurate enough, and strikes a lively alliance between those oldest of enemies: good humour and narrative history. How this happened, who it happened to, and why the hell it matters are all questions Mitchell answers with brilliance, wit, and the full erudition of a man who once studied history—and is damned if he’ll let it off the hook for the mess it’s made of everything. Mitchell clearly knows his history, with a book that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Simon Schama’ ANDREW MARR, BROADCASTER Who knew a history of England’s rulers could be this hilarious? A brilliantly entertaining romp through monarchs’ i

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In 2023, we flatter ourselves that we no longer put foes’ eyes out with swords or die of bubonic plague, and that the NHS, universal suffrage, widespread literacy, CBT, social media and increased life expectancy make us different from the toxic wingnuts who predominate in Mitchell’s book. Unruly is worth reading, not just for its exemplary gag to fact ratio, but to disabuse us of such delusions. Mitchell clearly knows his history, with a book that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Simon Schama' ANDREW MARR, BROADCASTER Between 1880 to 1920, British colonial policies in India claimed more lives than all famines in the Soviet Union, Maoist China and North Korea combined. Discover who we are and how we got here this holiday season in comedian David Mitchell's UNRULY: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the entitled and enthroned. 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’ DAN SNOW, HISTORIAN AND BROADCASTER