W. C. Sellar (1898–1951)

Sellar and Yeatman's masterpiece is undoubtedly the funniest history book ever written. Indeed, it actually gets funnier the more 'serious' history you know; while some of the jokes are obvious others are quite sophisticated and require background knowledge to be fully appreciated. I enjoyed it as a teenager (twenty years ago) but now I can appreciate it for the work of genius that it really is. I knocked off half a star for Steven Appleby's rather laboured cartoons; I usually enjoy his work show more but the modern illustrations really don't bear comparison with Reynold's wonderful originals. show less

Walter Carruthers Sellar and Robert Julian Yeatman’s 1066 And All That: A Memorable History of England comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates is a satirical take on how most remember their grammar school history lessons. Sellar and Yeatman rely heavily on puns to recreate the misremembered names and places, working on the philosophy that people only remember the more famous historical figures and wars, with the stuff in the show more middle fading away into the ether. They write, “History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself. This is the only Memorable History of England, because all the History that you can remember is in this book, which is the result of years of research in golf-clubs, gun-rooms, green-rooms, etc.” (pg. xxxiii). Written during the interwar years, the book ends with the peace following World War I and thus has an unintended joke when Sellar and Yeatman write, “History came to a .” (pg. 115). While some of the humor is dated, those who enjoy wordplay and are familiar with the events that Sellar and Yeatman lampoon will find plenty to laugh at in this volume. Ned Sherrin’s introduction for this Folio Society edition helps to contextualize both the authors and their humor while offering other examples of their literary work. show less

1066 Ain't All That is a book written with a Punch back when England was still Top Nation. W. C. Seller, a frustrated toilet salesman, and @YEETman, a poster of funny memes, decided to write a book that nationally lampooned the grandiose history times of the tome. This is done mostly by indulging in nonsense verse and deliberately grabbing the wrong side of the stick.

This is mostly a Good Thing, but the genuine satire is limited. The joke wears thin at times and becomes, if not a Bad Thing, show more then merely a Thing. That said, I did enjoy the clever Test Paper parts, on which I scored full marks. The book was rather influenza in its time, but its time was in History and History has now ended. show less

I picked this up in Oxfam a couple of weeks ago. I have read it before, a long time ago, and all I could remember was that the Cavaliers were wrong but romantic, while the Roundheads were right but repulsive.
This book contains all the memorable bits of English history, from the time that we were Top Nation; somewhat garbled and full of jokes, puns ("There was in Queen Victoria's reign a famous inventor and poet called Oscar Wilde who wrote very well but behaved very beardsley;") and creative show more misspellings. This is a very amusing book, which is a Good Thing. show less