This was very well done. I like David Mitchell‘s droll humour and he writes well about the subject. No endnoting, but the further reading list contains some good sources. I ended up buying the audio immediately afterward with a spare Libro.fm credit. ( )

I’m a big admirer of David Mitchell on TV, especially “Would I Lie to you?” Until this week, I had not experienced him as a writer. We don’t get his column in The Observer down under. I was therefore quite surprised to discover I didn’t enjoy David In Print. Mitchell’s droll humour, much anticipated by me, just doesn’t fit comfortably with the history. I too quickly got tired. ( )

I have always imagined that if I were from the UK (or any country where I was funding monarchs with my taxes) I would be a dedicated anti-royalist. As I have no skin in the game I am pretty neutral, but philosophically opposed to any system where merit is conflated with bloodlines. If you are interested in knowing a teeny tiny amount of information about several hundred years worth of English monarchs that will make you hate the system you will enjoy this fun summary. This is essentially the royal history equivalent of 88 Lines About 44 Women. Mitchell is smart, funny, and clearly knowledgable. His stand-up approach to delivery can get overwhelming so if you are going to listen to this you will want to spread it out over time. A 3.5 for me. ( )

I just like him, okay?
And I enjoy listening to him. And he was promoting the shhhhugar out of this on The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter.
It was great fun. Informative and snarky, it debunks the pop history of the monarchs up to Elizabeth I. Mitchell is definitely in the Richard III killed the princes (or at least had them killed) camp - so much for Josephine Tey. It's always a mistake to leave any other claimant to the throne alive. Monarchs were not the tourist attraction figureheads they are today. They were the totalitarian rulers who lived in danger of usurpation - of the fatal variety.

If Bill Bryson used cuss words and wrote a book about the British monarchy, this would be it. Funny, irreverent, and I afraid of finding the hilarity in a whole system that claims a gold hat makes you a ruler. The book flits between the facts of each monarch but doesn’t go too deep with any of them. Come for the history, stay for the humor. ( )