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History's Most Epic Fails: Discover the truth behind the world’s biggest historical howlers
Discover the truth behind the world's biggest historical howlers!
History is full of daring deeds, mighty heroes and incredible inventions. But it's also full of humongous FAILS! Athena Kugblenu - comedian and writer on CBBC's Horrible Histories - explores them all, whether it be the silly mishaps that changed the course of history or the mistakes that did us all a favour.
From the Titanic lookout who forgot his binoculars or the astronaut who taped over the Moon landings, to the famous inventors who failed THOUSANDS of times before getting something right, the amazing scientists who ACCIDENTALLY invented life-saving medicines and the businesses that went bust and bounced back better - take a riotous ride through history and discover the epic fails that changed the world.
History is full of daring deeds, mighty heroes and incredible inventions. But it's also full of humongous FAILS! Athena Kugblenu - comedian and writer on CBBC's Horrible Histories - explores them all, whether it be the silly mishaps that changed the course of history or the mistakes that did us all a favour.
From the Titanic lookout who forgot his binoculars or the astronaut who taped over the Moon landings, to the famous inventors who failed THOUSANDS of times before getting something right, the amazing scientists who ACCIDENTALLY invented life-saving medicines and the businesses that went bust and bounced back better - take a riotous ride through history and discover the epic fails that changed the world.
242 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 4, 2025
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October 11, 2025
A very sturdy success, built on lots of fails. They're all here, from things we might know of from our day – Steve Jobs being naff, Decca turning down The Beatles – or they may be from further in history, regarding imperial behaviour, or people not realising they were sending their armies into stupid places for armies to be. This was actually a lot more comprehensive than I had thought – it is large print, but it packs a lot in, and there is many a mistake in thinking such a junior trivia book would be just that – trivia. It's not, it's really thorough.
I did think the format of it was daft – a lot of the fails are easily put into more than one of the spurious categories we get here, and then the way they all get a star rating out of five is goofy, too. But that aside the contents are fine, and as I say unexpectedly broad and knowledgable. The author ends with blunders we've blundered into doing more than once, and keeps drumming it into us that fails can be highly educational steps to success. That may be, but these pages prove they can be great fun to learn about, too; there were a couple here I didn't know enough about for sure. Four and a half stars.
I did think the format of it was daft – a lot of the fails are easily put into more than one of the spurious categories we get here, and then the way they all get a star rating out of five is goofy, too. But that aside the contents are fine, and as I say unexpectedly broad and knowledgable. The author ends with blunders we've blundered into doing more than once, and keeps drumming it into us that fails can be highly educational steps to success. That may be, but these pages prove they can be great fun to learn about, too; there were a couple here I didn't know enough about for sure. Four and a half stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review