Product Description

Find out about history's interesting bits from one of the writers of the hit TV quiz QI:

What is bunkum?
Who was the original Nosy Parker?
Which infamous dictator drew the poster for Teddy s Perspiration Powder ?
Was there really a female pope?
Why did Lady Godiva take her clothes off?
Was Good King Wenceslas really good?
Who said of whom, He never commanded more than ten men in his life and he ate three of them ?
Which English king exploded?
Who fought the Dog Tax War?



Did you give your school history lessons your undivided attention?

Even if you did, you re probably none the wiser as to how exactly Henry II of France came to have a two-foot splinter in his head or why Alexandra of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a piano. Or where terms like bunkum, maverick, John Bull and taking the mickey come from; or how the Tsarina of Russia once saved a life with a comma; or why Robert Pate hit Queen Victoria on the head with a walking stick.

For some unknown reason the most interesting bits of history are kept out of lessons and away from syllabuses. Relegated to history s footnotes, they lie buried beneath the dense text like a few golden nuggets in a mountain of granite.

Now The Interesting Bits rights this wrong; it is a veritable treasure trove of those surprising, eccentric, chaotic, baffling asides that don t fit neatly into history s official narrative.

They are history s little-known treasures the gems that generations of teachers have excised from lessons on the grounds that they might make history too much like well fun.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7691 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
'Fabulous ... the perfect toilet book' --Paul O Grady

Review
'An energetic, colourful book that bounces through the bits of the past that you never knew you wanted to know, but surprisingly, do' --Easy Living

Synopsis
Did you give school history lessons your undivided attention? Even if you did, you're probably none the wiser as to how exactly Henry II of France came to have a two-foot splinter in his head or why Alexandra of Bavaria believed she had swallowed a piano. Or where terms like bunkum, maverick, John Bull and taking the mickey come from; or how the Tsarina of Russia once saved a life with a comma; or why Robert Pate hit Queen Victoria on the head with a walking stick. For some unknown reason the most interesting bits of history are kept out of lessons and away from syllabuses. Relegated to history's footnotes, they lie buried beneath the dense text like a few golden nuggets in a mountain of granite. Now The Interesting Bits rights this wrong; it is a veritable treasure trove of those surprising, eccentric, chaotic, baffling asides that don't fit neatly into history's official narrative. They are history's little-known treasures -- the gems that generations of teachers have excised from lessons on the grounds that they might make history too much like -- well -- fun.

Customer Reviews

Great fun
Cracking book for anyone who loves history, or anyone you'd love to love history a bit more. Lots of slivers of stories you may not have heard before, all good stuff for anyone who loves facts, figures or anecdotes. I adore QI, and this has just that urbane, witty sensiblity that makes me feel cleverer for being near it. Great coffee table (or toilet, if you're an uncivilised being, like me) reading.

Too much of the same
I love Historical Fiction and had hoped to enjoy these snippets too. Unfortunately I found lots of disjointed facts just too uninspiring to read and had to abandon the book. Although I'll admit to being interested by some of the content, this was marred by the implication in the editorial, that parts of the books were not genuinely factual.
Several people have said they thought it would make a good gift, but I wonder if people really want this type of coffee-table book? Personally I'd prefer to get stuck into a good novel.

Classy addition to the lavatory library.
It's a habit amongst the British middle classes, I've been told, to keep a selection of reading matter in the toilet for a quick perusal whlst nature takes its course. It all sounds a bit unhygenic to me, but if you are the type who has a stack of books in the bidet, 'The Interesting Bits' would be a sophisticated and erudite addition to your collection, consisting as it does of 300 or so short essays on historical trivia. Thanks to this book I now know how Dracula got his name, why Americans call 25c two bits, and am something of an authority on the legal prosecution and sentencing of pigs in 17th Century Germany. The author is also a writer on the TV show QI, and if you like that program I think you'll enjoy this.