Upper Class Twits Through The Ages (An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper-class Idiots in Charge - John O'Farrell)

Member Name: Mauri

Product:	An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper-class Idiots in Charge - John O'Farrell
Date:	24/06/09 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny and informative

Disadvantages: Leaves out quite a bit

John O'Farrell is an author, broadcaster and comedy script writer who made his name a few years ago with his debut book 'Things Can Only Get Better: Eighteen Miserable Years in the Life of a Labour Supporter' (1998) and 'The Best a Man Can Get (2000)'. His writing and humour has always been from a slightly left wing perspective but even though he was a member of the Labour party he has always been critical of the government on many issues such as the invasion of Iraq. His humour can be best described a clever satire, the kind of thing you would expect to find on shows like 'Have I Got News For You' and indeed he has been a guest there many times.

In 'An Utterly Impartial History of Britain - Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge' he turns his eye to British history and tries to debunk the accepted view that many of us have received in school. His premise is that the historical account we have been largely 'spun' by the establishment to portray a glorious heroic past in which England and then later Britain has vanquished its foreign enemies with military might and moral fortitude. Of course this was never the case and O'Farrell in his witty style manages to enlighten us as to what really happened.

History can be a very dry subject, if it is presented as a series of dates and royal names punctuated by dates of famous battles it can turn people off. Surprisingly this is just the approach that O'Farrell uses I assume to parody the rather old fashioned view of history that many of us fortysomethings will have come across in our youth and which many right wing commentators would like us to take up again. The difference in O'Farrell's approach is that he has a very accessible writing style and is genuinely funny as he describes some of the more inglorious truths behind the historical spin.

Although this book is an informative as well as funny it is not a textbook and should not be relied upon as one. It does present us with a chronological account of the last 2000 years of Britain's history but it is of course only a partial account and concentrates on peculiar aspects and events the kind you might find highlighted in the panel show 'Qi'.

Trying to cram over 2000 years of history into a single book is obviously a very ambitious task and to make it readable is also more difficult but O'Farrell has succeeded in doing just this. He has started at the beginning with the colonisation of the British isles by iron-age man and quickly moved on to the Roman occupation. Necessarily these long periods are skimmed over and the real meat of the book begins with the formation of what we would now recognise as the start of the English monarchy.

O'Farrell consistently makes the point that our traditional view of British history is a fraud perpetrated by the official historians of the ruling class who have the clear agenda of presenting a grandiose view of their masters at every point repressing the darker and less savoury truth about our great leaders.

The book is divided into nine sections each covering big chunks of British history including the Normans, the middle ages, the Tudors, the Stuarts. Each chapter is packed with some eye-opening facts that many would not have come across in any traditional history book.

"Henry VIII also felt compelled to introduce England's first law outlawing buggery. The first person to be convicted under this law was the headmaster at Eton College. Who'd have thought it?"

O'Farrell is scathing about the royal family particularly the Tudors and the Stuarts illustrating the spin prevalent at the time.

"Henry (VIII) is affectionately remembered as 'larger than life' (which translates as 'fat glutton'), a 'character' ('wife murderer and tyrannical despot') and bon vivant (had syphilis). "

It is amazing how many of the historical figures that we consider as being the 'greatest' Richard I (Lionheart), Henry V, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I on closer examination are not such reputable figures after all. O'Farrell goes as far as to say that the Stuarts were "a useless bunch of untalented, incompetent, arrogant, upper-class thickos" and on reading about them you have to agree.

As always history is written by the victors for the benefit of presenting them in the best light so we have now a picture of a wonderful historic idyll of Britain being a fiercely proud and unconquerable country with a ruling dynasty stretching back from Alfred the great to our present monarch. The truth is rather different. The Saxon Britain we often talk about as the 'real' Britain before those damn Frenchies arrived was in fact the product of an invading army from Denmark and Germany. The Norman invasion was a carve up of the country assets by the second rate French nobility, interestingly enough the division of the bulk of the land to a small minority of French Barons is still in place today, the descended of those Norman nobles still own the bulk of the land in modern day Britain! Even the idea that England has not been successfully invaded by a foreign force since 1066 doesn't stand up fully to scrutiny since the rightful English king James II was deposed by the Dutch lead by William of Orange backed by his army.

O'Farrell also emphasises the tremendous religious prejudice that existed through the ages mainly catholics and protestants killing each other at every turn. This built up to an extent that even the right to the throne was affected. George I had not been the rightful heir to the throne he was in fact fiftieth in line! It was only the fact that all the other candidates were catholic that made this minor German noble the new king of England giving rise to our modern royal family.

The overall story that comes out is one of power greedy nobility, whether Roman, Saxon, Norman, Tudor, Stuart, Hanoverian screwing each other at every opportunity and screwing the unwashed masses all of the time. Any improvements in the condition of the masses or the arrival of democracy has occurred in spite of rather than because of our 'glorious' leaders most probably by accident.

'An Utterly Impartial History Of Britain' is a very accessible book it can be read by anyone even if you know little or nothing about history in fact the less you know the better, you will certainly learn something in a very entertaining way. I am something of a history junky and although I had come across many of the things in the book before I still found it an enjoyable and informative read. The book is packed with witticisms and amusing asides. If you like the quick-fire comments that you hear from Paul Merton and Ian Hislop every week on have I got News for you then you'll like O'Farrell's humour.

Recommended.

'An Utterly Impartial History Of Britain - Or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge' in paperback (592 pages) Published by Black Swan, ISBN-10: 0552773964/ ISBN-10: 0552773964 /ISBN-13: 978-0552773966 can be bought from Amazon at the time of writing this review for £4.86 (+p&p).

© Mauri 2009

Summary: A funny view of 2000 years of British history