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Unruly
- A History of England's Kings and Queens
- Narrated by: David Mitchell
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
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Unruly
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Discover who we are and how we got here by listening to comedian and student of history David Mitchell's UNRULY: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain.
Think you know your kings and queens? Think again.
In UNRULY, David Mitchell explores how England's monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects' destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky sods who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.
Taking us right back to King Arthur (spoiler: he didn't exist), David tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I (spoiler: she dies). It's a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and at least one total Cnut, as the population evolved from having their crops nicked by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.
How this happened, who it happened to and why it matters in modern Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and won't let it off the hook for the mess it's made.
A funny book about a serious subject, UNRULY is for anyone who has ever wondered how we got here - and who is to blame.
Read by David Mitchell.
What listeners say about Unruly
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Martin Naylor
- 18-10-23
Great
As long as you know who David Mitchell is and are comfortable with his views on contemporary issues, you are on safe ground. Oh, and you need to be OK with swearing too. It's not every history book that comes with an "explicit lyrics" label or with spoilers about the last James Bond film, but this one does. It also regularly critiques the self-indulgent habit of historians to reframe things with little or no evidence to support them; "maybe Shakespeare didn't write the plays". "maybe Richard III wasn't such a bad king" etc. Meanwhile, he consigns the likes of "killed with a red hot poker to the bum" and "burnt the cakes" to the apocryphal skip. Royal history was a gap in my knowledge that I'd been trying to fill, so I bought this book the second I knew it existed. It did its job admirably. I can't claim to remember everything I've heard, especially not from the 100 Years' War section, but I bet I remember a lot more from this format than I would have done from something less exuberant.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- HistoryLover
- 11-10-23
Funny. But with real history!
David Mitchell is a really good historian! I’d always suspected that he was, but this book is full of wise observations on the historical process and on historiography itself. It also made me laugh out loud. There is more good historical sense here than in most academic studies. Learning through laughter. It works. Having Mitchell narrate the book was an added bonus. More of this please DM!
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- T Hartwell
- 13-10-23
History at a gallop
Interesting and entertaining throughout. A strong sense of, history isn’t what happened, it’s what’s recorded.
Spoliers** Didn’t really make his point that Kings are just blokes, and who they are isn’t really important because they aren’t special in themselves, because we whizzed past so fast that I didn’t really get a feel for who they were and so how non-special they are. However, I wasn’t expecting a perfect book, an interesting entertaining one was all I hoped for, and that’s what I got.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Xavier Quill
- 26-10-23
Thoroughly entertaining
A great sideways swipe at the overblown and puffed up nonsense of the English Monarch, delivered with an iron fist in a comedic glove!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 24-10-23
A fantastic listen
Great telling of a past in that typical style you expect from David Mitchell.
The structuring of this book makes it a very easy listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- studentmum
- 15-10-23
Fabulous book
Thought provoking and extremely funny - brilliant. A must for all lovers of history and those who are not normally that interested.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 23-10-23
Very funny
Great summary of English history, dispersed with laugh out loud bits of David Mitchell’s brilliant observations. My only criticism (and it’s a minor one) is that it’s so choc full of interesting facts and opinion that it’s a lot to take in. I’d like to see the author making a tv series, where he can deliver it slightly slower with pauses to take in the locations he’s talking about
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Caroline Reynolds
- 24-10-23
loved it
I thoroughly enjoyed every chapter. if you like David Mitchell, you will definitely like this book
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- callum reyes
- 26-10-23
Informative, entertaining and engrossing
A brilliant listen.
If you have an interest in history, it's for you.
If you also find David Mitchell funny, then it's doubly for you.
I'll be listening to it again
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Andrew
- 31-10-23
Brilliant very interesting and funny
Fantastic would recommend to any one even if you are not interested in history. Probably more interesting if you’re English though
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