Unruly is a non-fiction book about the history of England's kings and queens from the legendary King Arthur to the iconic Queen Elizabeth I. It is written by the famous comedian David Mitchell, so yes… I read this entire thing as if it were written by Mark from Peep Show.
Non–fiction isn’t usually my bag and oftentimes I find that I lose focus a lot with the lack of consistent narrative. Fortunately, the history of England’s monarchy is pretty wild and is very much like a soap opera in of itself.
The past is unknowable. It’s as complicated as the present. It’s an infinity of former nows all as unfathomable as this one.
A lot of history books can be quite dry, but given the comedic delivery, Unruly is a much more approachable way to read about these historical events. David Mitchell doesn’t get too bogged down with the detail, but does get bogged down in the seemingly unrelated tangential rants. All of which I enjoyed. The comedic timing of just about every joke is delivered to the calibre you would come to expect from David Mitchell. If you are unfamiliar with him, here are some quotes from the book which give a sense of his comedic style:
Meanwhile Becket had the classic nouve’s instinct to show off, to demonstrate to the world how far he’d come. He would definitely have got a personalized numberplate.
But I’m not the guy who’s going to overturn the long-standing tradition of chronological historical narratives. I’m not that kind of iconoclast - you should see what I’m wearing. I still use a fabric handkerchief, for god’s sake.
Plus the trappings of religion felt a bit embarrassing and weird, like properly putting on a French accent when saying things in French.
Despite not being a professional historian, the amount of information given throughout this book is insane. However, it never felt like a chore to read and was actually quite fun. I am slightly concerned that it has gone in one ear and out the other, but as of this moment, I really feel as though I have learned a lot. Having this book written by a comedian and not by an, arguably more qualified, historian gives it a unique perspective and allows for more opinion based bias to slip through. This is all very self aware and I enjoyed this less balanced take on history as a whole.
This is projection on my part but I’m not a professional historian so I don’t have to pretend I haven’t picked a side.
As you may have seen, I am currently reading The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell, so I particularly found the beginning stages of this book, involving the Anglo-Saxons, interesting. This has given me much more historical context to keep in my head whilst reading this series. Ultimately, this was the goal by reading this book. This year, I am delving much deeper into historical fiction and it makes sense to get a better foundation of the real thing. Like how you would read the book before watching the film. Saying this, I am somewhat annoyed at potentially ruining some key plot moments in Wolf Hall, but I guess I have had 500 years to catch up on that drama, so I only have myself to blame.
I mentioned that I fear a lot of this information has gone in one ear and out the other, which I am worried about, but some sections have no doubt made an imprint on my mind. Including the revelation that almost everyone in the UK is a direct descendant of William the Conqueror. When I first read this I was completely bamboozled but then as I read the explanation it actually made so much sense.
Almost everyone in the UK is a direct descendant of William the Conqueror. These were facts based on overwhelming statistical likelihood: someone of English ancestry living today will have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, etc. Spin this back ten centuries and their number of ancestors hits about eight billion, many times the total number of humans alive on earth at this time, let alone in England and Normandy. So, a person living now must be descended from a person living then by many many different routes, not just one. That makes the chances of any given person with any English ancestry at all not descending from William by at least one of those routes so vanishingly small as to be, in practical terms, impossible.
Apparently this fact was taken from a QI episode that David appeared in (which makes sense because it’s a very QI thing to say) but I’m glad that he chose to reference it in his own book. This is something I’ve never really given much thought about, but seems so blindingly obvious when you think about it. Maybe this is common knowledge and I'm dumb, but either way it just kind of blew my mind a bit and really got me thinking.
There are lots of educational moments such as these delivered in David Mitchell's signature irreverent style that I found really enjoyable. Now that I think about it, it’s basically Horrible Histories, so if you liked that show then you will for sure enjoy reading this. Now I’m off to watch The Chase to get that one English monarchy question on every episode correct.
🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 - 4 stars
Thanks for reading - Ang
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