The History Gossip: A Slice of Ye Olde Scandal for Every Day of the Year

by Katie Kennedy, Martin Hargreaves (illustrator)

In her debut book, Katie Kennedy of the hugely popular TikTok account @TheHistoryGossip delivers fascinating, witty, and salacious historical facts for every day of the year, proving that our shared histories are anything but boring.

Sexy. Scandalous. Dodgy. If you were of the mind that history is boring, you haven’t been paying attention. Meet Katie Kennedy, aka The History Gossip. Incorporating British slang and pop culture references and infused with her signature deadpan humor, Katie offers a delightful fusion of Drunk History and Horrible Histories, making learning about the past an absolute riot. 

From royals embroiled in love triangles to Victorians eating tapeworms for the banter, Katie carefully researches the past and delivers shocking and salacious historical facts for each day of the year. Just as informative as it is funny and entertaining, The History Gossip follows an “on this day in history” format with historical events arranged by month and date, and with quirky reference illustrations to help readers visualize the past.

This compelling and raunchy read covers topics that range from Mary, Queen of Scots getting the chop (she was beheaded after she was found to be complicit in a plot to murder her cousin, Elizabeth I) to the curse surrounding King Tut’s tomb (Lord Carnarvon died from an infected mosquito bite two months after visiting). So make yourself a cuppa if you fancy, and get ready to dive into the tales and stories that have made history so very absorbing and a lot outrageous.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Humor, Historical

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 2024

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

History for the TikTok era. Not going to lie, at times listening to this I felt so old however I very much enjoyed the tongue in cheek, down to earth narration style. I have seen some of Katie Kennedy's Tiktoks so I knew what to expect from this and highly recommend the audio version. It helps I have a similar accent to Katie so this just felt like a mate chatting to me about random stuff.

It's very accessible, as long as you don't mind the very British cultural references and humour (literally no one is safe from the piss taking) and the laid back style. It's set out as a calander, going through every day of the year with an interesting fact from that day throughout history so it's also very fast paced. One minute you're reading about Scott's race to the North Pole to Mary Queen of Scots getting her head chopped off. It's chaotic, but a fun time.

[Tilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars

A few funny and interesting parts but it was almost trying too hard and I found all the ridiculous slang really off putting. Not for me!

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did learn some interesting gossip/history, this was a bit mid for me.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gives about a paragraph on something that happened in history for every day of the year in the authors signature fun tone. This was fun just wanted a bit more.

[Sarah Kimberley · Rating 4 out of 5]

History but make it spicy. If you like nonsense, hanky panky, Tudor insults or wanna pull like it’s the 1700s, The History Gossip’s your girl. This book gave me a ruddy good howl! A Boxing Day delight- I highly recommend. Stuffed full of cheeky on this day tidbits, spanning twelve months and several centuries. Births, deaths and all things mad in between.

Good old King ‘Henners’ (Henry VIII) couldn’t “function without fanny”, The Greeks used broken pottery to wipe their behinds and Casanova caught the clap. Allegedly 💅

I could not put this down it was that deliciously written and revelatory. Everything was chef’s kiss! Katie is just sheer brilliance and I’ve followed her since the beginning of her history TikTok career. This should be shared far and wide with everyone you know ✨

[Sophie · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disappointment.

I love The History Gossip’s videos. They’re clever and funny and she’s very engaging. This book was in places but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

It was kind of funny but a lot of the time just felt like she was trying too hard and often the humour made it unclear which elements were factual (some were of course obvious) - and isn’t this meant to be about making history more accessible? In some cases other than the date and event there was no actual information about what happened, rendering it kind of pointless.

And my goodness it needs a decent proof read and some fact checking. Henry VIII became king in 1509 not 1590. And if someone embarked on a journey in 2007 they couldn’t also have started it in 1994.

Another one which jumped off the page was Disney’s first feature length animation, Snow White. Apparently “over 200 separate paintings” - more like over 2 million!

Nearly half the book is a glossary (to explain all the modern slang used), references and an index.

I’ve been pretty generous giving this two stars because fair play to her for writing a book - that’s a book more than I’ve written - and the concept is great, it just needs a bit (I’m a lot!) of refining. I’m glad I paid 99p in an Amazon deal!

[LR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fully enjoyed reading this book every day this year! The witty way of telling historical stories is amazing and really keeps you gripped. I sent many photos and voice notes to friends of quotes from this book because it was that funny!

[Bonnie Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

GCSE teachers take note. Cause if Mr Rhodri were to explain patterns in migration like this, trust the class would listen. (he would be fired but whatever)

[Jessica Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to learn some fun historical facts and love the history gossips humour this book is a must read! From tik tok creator to author is the perfect transition!

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 This was actually so funny! I loved the gen z humour mixed with historical facts! A very effective way of getting people who wouldn't usually like history to read about it! The way it was formatted was perfect too!

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of an anecdote per day was really nice but the language was trying too hard to sound like Gen-Z vocabulary

[megs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the delivery but i feel that the editor did her dirty as there were quite a few errors.

In some part I would have preferred a bit more historical detail too.

Love making history more accessible and enjoyable to a wider audience!!!

[Sofie Amalie]

Til dig der elsker Philomena Cunk

[avamoore2608 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giggling on the bus core

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. The opinions in this review are my own.
I love history, so that was a draw to read this book. Then it was in bite size chunks, a daily fact. Another draw.
And those facts were turned into something amusing. A win.
Think Horrible Histories but for adults with slang and a contemporary slant.
It was amusing,irreverent and a total blast to read.
I thought the use of local slang or terms brilliant, chucking at words like craic, bairns etc being used to describe some of the major events in world history.
I would recommend this book to anyone who love Horrible Histories as a child or who loves a ‘thought for the day’ style book or who just wants a good chuckle.

[Michelle Graf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Running Press for the ARC.

So much British slang that, even with a glossary at the back, it was guess work for the jokes at times. The historical events were briefly described, which does make sense for fitting 365 days of history in a book. I kinda wanted more facts, less niche jokes.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a mostly Gen Z slang, this is not like your usual history books. Tells us nothing new but is entertaining and amusing. A good book to dip in and out of.

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

First read of 2025, giggling in my living room! Pls can we make history fun again lads

[Charlotte3t · Rating 2 out of 5]

was ok. good facts, funny in some places but felt a bit stale in others. would probably reread to find the fun facts for my friends bdays that i can then recite to look like a nerd.

[India-Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

literally just so fucking funny

[Isabelle moon]

Such a different but interesting & fun take on history!

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 genuinely laughed out loud all the way through

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non fiction is really not my thing however the humour made this highly enjoyable. Katie Kennedy’s TikTok’s have kept me massively entertained for the last year or so and this did not disappoint!

[Lotte Dorssers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Temu versie van Cunk On Earth

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This felt like a conglomeration of one liners from Philomena Cunk. The stories are disjointed and so short I felt like I got nothing out of it, though it probably isn’t meant to be read straight through. The final straw was one of the days being dedicated to Taylor Swift.
Not everyone should get a book deal. Some people should stick to TikTok, or could maybe prepare a page-a-day calendar instead.

[ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

if philomena cunk had a tiktok account

[leti · Rating 1 out of 5]

i really wanted to like this book.

in theory, the history gossip should have been right up my alley. history is already full of weird people, bizarre scandals, terrible decisions, unbelievable coincidences, and enough drama to keep reality television producers employed for centuries. you don't need to do much to make history entertaining because, frankly, history already did the hard work for you.

that's why i was so surprised that i ended up having such a frustrating experience with this.

i can see exactly what katie kennedy was trying to do. i understand the vision. i understand the appeal. history can feel intimidating to a lot of people, and there is definitely room for books that approach it from a more casual, humorous perspective. not everyone wants to read an 800-page biography written by a historian who has dedicated thirty years of their life to studying eighteenth-century tax policies. sometimes you just want someone to sit down and tell you the interesting bits.

the problem is that this book spends so much time trying to be funny that it forgets to actually be funny.

there's a certain type of humor that feels effortless, where you get the impression that the author is naturally witty and the jokes are simply an extension of how they think. then there's the kind of humor that feels manufactured, where you can practically hear the author pausing after every sentence and asking, "okay, but how can i make this quirky?"

this book constantly felt like the latter.

so many jokes landed with the exact same energy as someone explaining a meme after they've already shown it to you. you can see the mechanism behind it. you can see the effort. you can see what reaction the author is hoping for. the reaction just never arrived.

and the problem is that the jokes are not only unfunny, they are also lazy in a way that makes them fall apart the moment you look at them for even half a second. there was a quote about elizabeth i that really summed up what bothered me about this book: "on this day, elizabeth i, who famously declared she never wanted to get taken to pound town, is born. she was a disappointment to both her parents, who thought, how on earth could someone like her rule?" and i just sat there thinking… really? this is the joke you went with? because there are so many things you could say about elizabeth i that are actually funny, actually sharp, actually based on the ridiculousness of history itself, and instead we are doing "pound town". it feels like the kind of joke someone makes when they are convinced that being crude is the same thing as being witty.

and it is not even just that the line is unfunny, it is that it is also factually wrong in a way that should have been caught immediately. her father, sure, was famously disappointed that she was not a man. that part at least makes sense. but her mother? anne boleyn was dead before elizabeth even became queen. she was executed when elizabeth was still a child, and by all accounts elizabeth carried a painting of her mother in a necklace and preserved her memory with the kind of care that makes the whole "both her parents" line feel not just careless but genuinely ridiculous. this is not some obscure, niche fact buried under seven layers of historical debate. this is a very basic piece of elizabethan history. one search on wikipedia could have prevented it.

which is what makes the joke so aggravating. it is not just that it does not land. it does not land, it oversimplifies, it flattens a complicated historical figure into a cheap one-liner, and then it mangles the actual facts on top of that. at that point, i am not even being asked to laugh, i am being asked to pretend the book did its homework when it very clearly did not.

it also doesn't help that the book relies heavily on fake quotes, fake reactions, fake dialogue, and little comedic asides that constantly interrupt the actual history being discussed. after a while, it started feeling less like i was learning about historical figures and more like i was trapped in a group chat with someone who refuses to let a conversation happen without adding a joke every thirty seconds.

and the worst part is that the constant joking started undermining the actual information. there were multiple points where the author was discussing events i wasn't already familiar with, and i found myself genuinely unsure what was real and what was supposed to be a joke. when you're writing nonfiction, that feels like a pretty significant problem: i shouldn't have to stop and wonder whether a detail is a historical fact or an attempt at humor. if anything, humor should make the information more memorable and accessible. here, it often had the opposite effect.

another issue is that the structure feels completely all over the place.

the timeline jumps around so much that it becomes difficult to establish any sense of historical progression. one minute you're in one century, the next you're somewhere completely different, then you're jumping countries, then decades, then back again. instead of feeling like a journey through history, it felt like someone had spilled a box of historical trivia cards onto the floor and decided to read them in whatever order they happened to land.

which could maybe work if the writing was strong enough to tie everything together. for me, it wasn't.

and then we get to the part that genuinely soured the experience: it's one thing when a joke doesn't land. it's another thing when a joke lands directly on top of someone's grave.

some of the humor veers into territory that felt deeply inappropriate, and once that happened, it became difficult for me to trust the author's judgment. the passage involving anne frank was particularly bad. not edgy, not daring, not pushing boundaries in an interesting way. just gross. the kind of joke that leaves you sitting there wondering who exactly was supposed to find this funny.

there were also jokes involving bestiality that felt completely unnecessary, and what frustrated me most about them was not even that they were offensive so much as that they were painfully unfunny. there is usually some kind of trade-off when a comedian or writer ventures into questionable territory. you might think the joke is in poor taste, but at least you can understand what they were aiming for. here, i genuinely could not see what was being gained. the jokes did not reveal anything interesting about the historical figures being discussed, they did not provide any meaningful commentary, and they certainly did not make me laugh. they were simply there, taking up space on the page and making the book feel more juvenile than clever.

and while those moments were the most obvious examples of the humor misfiring, they were not the only times i found myself uncomfortable with the way the book approached its subjects.

some of the passages about women and minorities left me with the distinct impression that the author was so determined to squeeze a joke out of every situation that she lost sight of the people she was actually writing about. the result was a tone that often felt strangely dismissive, even when i do not think that was the intention.

the section on mary shelley was one example where i found myself stopping and wondering whether this was really the angle we were supposed to be taking. there is a difference between acknowledging that historical figures have done something weird and reducing remarkable people to a collection of punchlines. there is a difference between poking fun at someone and accidentally trivializing what made them significant in the first place. the book occasionally seemed unable to tell where that line was.

what made this particularly frustrating is that the entire premise of the book seems to rest on the idea that history is full of complicated people. it wants to challenge idealized narratives. it wants to reveal the messier, stranger, and less flattering sides of famous figures. in principle, i actually like that approach. history is messy. historical figures are messy. the tendency to flatten people into heroes and villains often does more harm than good, and i have no problem with a book that wants to complicate those narratives.

the problem is that the standards applied here feel bizarrely inconsistent.

throughout the book, there is a recurring sense that the author is eager to tell readers, "you thought this person was cool? well, let me tell you why they were actually kind of terrible." again, that can be an interesting angle. sometimes it is important to interrogate the reputations of famous people. sometimes the stories we inherit are incomplete. sometimes the people we celebrate really did do awful things.

but if that is going to be the book's mission statement, then surely that standard should be applied consistently.

instead, i found myself increasingly puzzled by the choices being made. somehow the book manages to spend more time highlighting flaws, embarrassing anecdotes, or less flattering details about women like nellie bly than it does discussing the fact that coco chanel was a nazi collaborator. not a rumor. not a minor controversy. not an obscure footnote. one of the most significant and widely discussed aspects of her legacy.

and yet when coco chanel appears in the book, that fact is absent to such a degree that it becomes impossible not to notice.

what makes this even stranger is that there is literally a section centered around her birthday. the opportunity is right there. if the entire appeal of the book is exposing the less glamorous truths behind famous names, then surely that is one of the first things worth mentioning. instead, the book seems far more interested in taking playful shots at certain figures while giving others a surprisingly easy ride.

after a while, that selectiveness started to bother me more than any individual joke ever could. it created the impression that the book was less interested in genuinely examining historical figures and more interested in finding whichever angle would produce the quickest laugh. unfortunately, when the laughs are already inconsistent, that approach leaves the whole project feeling oddly hollow.

another thing that became increasingly difficult to ignore the further i got into the book was just how aggressively eurocentric it is.

and look, i understand that no single history book can cover everything. human history is massive. no one expects a casual humor book to provide equal coverage of every civilization, country, and historical period ever recorded. that would be impossible.

but this book contains 365 facts.

three hundred and sixty-five.

you are telling me that across 365 opportunities to discuss bizarre, fascinating, chaotic, unbelievable moments from human history, we somehow ended up orbiting almost exclusively around england, france, italy, and occasionally the united states?

somehow south america, asia, and huge portions of africa are treated like distant afterthoughts, briefly acknowledged and then immediately abandoned so we can return to another european aristocrat having syphilis or another british king being incompetent. and while yes, those things can absolutely be entertaining, the imbalance becomes impossible not to notice after a while.

especially because there are so many genuinely incredible stories that could have fit the exact tone this book was aiming for.

you want weird historical gossip? south america alone could have carried entire chapters. you could talk about brazil literally attempting to crown a teenager as emperor. you could talk about the fact that pedro ii, one of brazil’s emperors, spoke multiple languages, was obsessed with science, corresponded with intellectuals around the world, and basically gave off the energy of someone who accidentally became emperor while actually wanting to be a university professor. you could talk about simón bolívar dragging half a continent through liberation movements while his personal life was somehow equally dramatic. you could talk about the absolutely unhinged number of coups, revolutions, disappearances, political scandals, and bizarre dictatorships across latin american history that make modern television dramas look restrained.

and asia? please.

you are telling me there was no room for the chinese emperor who was so terrified of assassination that he supposedly slept in a different room every night? no room for the fact that korean court officials once debated politics through poetry insults? no mention of the japanese artist who changed his name dozens of times throughout his life like he was constantly rebranding himself every few years? no stories about the sheer theatricality of certain dynasties and royal courts across asia, where entire political disputes often unfolded with levels of passive aggression that would make modern office environments look subtle?

and africa is treated even worse by virtue of barely existing in the book at all.

which is absurd when african history is full of stories that would fit perfectly into this exact format. mansa musa accidentally crashing economies because he was too rich. the absolutely legendary diplomacy, political strategy, and military leadership of queens like nzinga. the sheer scale and sophistication of historical kingdoms and empires that western history books constantly reduce to footnotes despite being objectively fascinating.

instead, the book keeps returning to the same historical comfort zones over and over again.

england. france. italy. a little america. repeat.

and because the humor already struggles to land consistently, the lack of variety only makes the repetition more noticeable. after a while, it starts feeling less like an exploration of history and more like scrolling through the same four wikipedia pages rewritten by someone trying very hard to become the funniest person in your group project.

which is frustrating because expanding the scope would not only have made the book more informative, it genuinely would have made it funnier.

history becomes infinitely more entertaining the moment you stop pretending that only a handful of western countries were producing bizarre people and ridiculous events worth talking about. human beings have been weird globally. that is one of our most consistent traits as a species.

the frustrating thing is that there is a version of this book that i probably would have loved.

the concept is genuinely great. history gossip is, frankly, one of the easiest sells imaginable. human history is essentially an endless archive of scandals, feuds, betrayals, affairs, rivalries, disasters, grudges, ego trips, public embarrassments, and people making decisions so catastrophically bad that they continue to fascinate us centuries later. you do not need to force humor into history because history is already funny. not intentionally funny, perhaps, but absurd in the way real life often is.

some of the most entertaining historical anecdotes sound completely made up despite being entirely true. some of the most powerful people in history behaved like children. some of the most influential figures spent years engaged in petty arguments that would not feel out of place in a modern group chat. the material is already there.

that is why i kept wishing the book would trust its own subject matter more.

instead, it often felt as though the author was worried that readers might become bored if there was not a joke attached to every fact, a sarcastic aside attached to every anecdote, or a fake quote inserted every few paragraphs. the constant need to perform humor became exhausting because it left so little room for the history itself to breathe.

rather than enhancing the stories, the jokes frequently smothered them.

rather than making the information more memorable, they often distracted from it.

and rather than creating the feeling that i was listening to a genuinely funny friend tell me fascinating historical gossip, the book often felt like someone trying very hard to convince me they were funny before they had actually earned the laugh.

by the end, i was not laughing very much, i was not learning as much as i had hoped, and i was certainly not as entertained as the premise suggested i would be.

[Meg Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The organization of this book wasn’t my favorite. It’s set up by the month each fact occurred. As a result, each chapter had a fact about Henry VIII rather than one chapter of sloppy gossip about him. You find yourself in Roman times and then with astronauts on the moon within seconds of eachother. But it was still written in the same funny delivery you get on TikTok, so I managed to suffer through. 😆

[N Dzerins · Rating 1 out of 5]

I set what the author is trying to do, unfortunately she really isn’t funny and it’s just pretty cringey. Some notable errors too. Not worth it. 1/5 for the friend who told her she was ‘totes hilaires’ too.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Running Press for an advance copy of this book that looks at events throughout history with an eye towards being both informative and funny, proving that history is not only a circle, but is very much like getting hit in the face with a pie.

Many think of history as a dry recitation of facts. 1492 Columbus set sail to the find Asia, and found something in between. 1776 America begins a war with England for freedom. 1812 America does it again, this time over trade. History however is much more than that. Without understanding the past, one really can't understand the present. The same old hatreds, the same racism, the same stupid reasons constantly come up again and again. Another thing is history is also weird, and as weird as things are getting, well the past might say hold my beer. The Propellerheads had a great song called History Repeating with these lyrics:' {S}ome is good, some is bad and the joke is rather sad, that its all just a little bit of history repeating.'. Well in this book none of the jokes are bad, though they might get a little ribald. The History Gossip: A Slice of Ye Olde Scandal for Every Day of the Year by author and Tik Tok-er Katie Kennedy, illustrated by Martin Hargreaves, is a book of days dealing with events from throughout history, from the far past to the birth of pop stars, with many other odd, weird, and sad occasions in between.

The book is set up like an almanac, or a book of days, starting with January, with each day having a section discussing what happened that day, from the far past to the birth of Taylor Swift. Katie Kennedy, aka The History Gossip has made a credible list full of events both key to the growth of civilization, ie Taylor Swift, and things that might one go hmm, that seems odd. The beheading of the villain Oliver Cromwell, in retribution for the death of his king, though Cromwell had to be dug up from his grave of seven years to do so. The many assassination attempts on Queen Victoria, who wondered how that people loved her so to try and kill her. Actually Queen Victoria makes quite a few appearances here. War, pestilence famine and lots of death especially the weird kinds that history seems to be full pop up a lot. Along with events like the stopping of Niagara Falls, and a few stories about pets.

Each day offers a snarkily told snippet, along with a bit of fictional dialogue that might be what was really said, but would never be shared by historians. However added in the dialogue, Kennedy is sure to keep the event real, not making anything up, letting what happens happen. Kennedy can be what some would call crass, and British. This caused me to look up a few words that were new to me, and probably darning my Google search to some watchlist somewhere. Humor can be subjective and what makes one guffaw out loud, make make another just chuckle, or even worse put on a prune face. So many think that history can't be fun, can't be amusing, and must be as dull as possible. This misses much of why history is so alive. Times have been tough since the first fish crawled on land. And we are still here. I use this to keep me going in these dark times of colossal stupid we live in. Though I am sure we are only one day from digging up FDR and cutting his head off for giving us Social Security.

A funny book that might get people interested in the past, make them think about the future, and try to make it better that what is currently. The humor can be a little much, but older teens might snicker, and think hey this isn't just facts, and not just people put on pedestals. These people were real, and sometimes pretty stupid. Just like all humans. I enjoyed this book, and look forward to more.