Unruly

Unruly is part Horrible Histories part jolly romp guided by Alan Bennett. Perhaps this is how history should be done: not by patient scholars, but by free-swearing actor-comedians cramming more ideas and jokes into their pages than many professionals have committed to print in their careers. * Guardian * Full of jokes and canny insights, 100 per cent sparkier and more revernt than your school textbooks * I * An enjoyable, rollicking read, definitely not a conventional history book * Sunday Times * I dont think anyone other than David Mitchell could have written this book. Its clever, funny and makes you think quite differently about history we thought we knew * DAN SNOW, HISTORIAN AND BROADCASTER * By turns fascinating and funny - there is a jewel of an insight or a refreshing blast of clarifying wit on every page. David brings a delightfully contrary and hilariously cantankerous eye to the history of the English Monarchy. Informative, illuminating and very very funny * JESSE ARMSTRONG, CREATOR OF SUCCESSION AND PEEP SHOW * Mitchell clearly knows his history, with a book that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Simon Schama * Andrew Marr * A Peep Show history of England * Sunday Times * Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and razor sharp. Mitchell - a funny man and a skilled historian - tells stories that are interesting and fun. His rants alone are worth the price of the book. And amid all the jokes and delightful nonsense, Mitchell sneaks in a serious message about English identity. Here is Horrible Histories for grownups - stripped of their finery, devoid of reverence, UNRULY's monarchs emerge as mortals with ordinary flaws. I learnt a lot and laughed a lot, and people who have never before picked up a history book will read and enjoy this one. That's an accomplishment * Gerard DeGroot, The Times * Chatty, irreverent and liberally sprinkled with gags and opinions. Horrible Histories with added swearing. * Guardian * I cant recommend this book enough. Very funny and interesting, it is above all a proper work of history * Charlie Higson * A Punch-and-Judy show of awful people doing terrible things to one another. There is refreshing candour in how it calls out the bastards, bullies and brats who have donned Englands highest-carat hats. Above all, its a funny read, playful and well-meaning . . . told in a fizzing and indignant style, rammed with entertaining tangents. A sleek rod of Mitchell, fired from a rail gun, passing straight through the readers skull * Daily Telegraph * Who knew a history of England's rulers could be this hilarious? A brilliantly entertaining romp through monarchs. * i * Provocative, energeticlly comical, unortodox. Stuffed full of comical scenes and anecdotes, which only an author with a fine sense of the absurd could give us. * Mail on Sunday * [A] rollicking (and bracingly sweary) account . . . Amid the jokes, Mitchell offers a thoughtful argument about the relationship between the monarchy and our sense of national identity * Daily Mail * A riotously funny romp through one thousand or so years of English history. I cannot remember the last time I laughed as much as I did listening to Unruly. Mitchells take on history is unremittingly funny as well as insightful. There are so many exquisite turns of phrase. I had to stop listening whilst cooking for fear Id drop red-hot pans, I was shaking with laughter so much. * Entertainment Focus * I relished a crash course in English history with comedian David Mitchells ambitious Unruly. * Daily Express, Books of the Year * A historical tour of English rulers in a book that is like no history lesson you've had to endure before. A semi-serious book full of weird and wonderful spectacle, scandal, and brutality. * Luxury London * He brings his typically wry style to an exploration of England's monarchy * History Revealed *

David Mitchell is a BAFTA Award-winning actor, writer and comedian who has starred in many of the UK's best-loved TV shows, including Peep Show, That Mitchell and Webb Look and Upstart Crow. He is a team captain on Would I Lie to You? (BBC One), the host of The Unbelievable Truth on Radio 4 and one of the Observer's most popular columnists. Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens is his first history book.