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: #13651 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

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

'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

'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

About the Author
Justin Pollard read archaeology and anthropology at Cambridge. As an historical writer and researcher he has advised on six feature films including Elizabeth and its sequel, The Golden Age, as well as over twenty-five documentary series such as Time Team for Channel 4. He is also a researcher for QI and the author of the Seven Ages of Britain, The Rise and Fall of Alexandria and Alfred the Great.

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.

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.

Fun!
Let's be honest, this is not a book likely to interest those looking for a scholarly work giving a deep insight into the historical events depicted but it is not suggested, anywhere, that it is.

It is the sort of book you can flick through in an idle moment knowing that you may find something illuminating, interesting or amusing.
It is also quite likely to make you want to delve more deeply into some of the background to events portrayed.

A worthwhile purchase.