A Miscellany of Britain: People, Places, History, Culture, Customs, Sport

by Tom O'Meara

Illustrated throughout, 'A Miscellany of Britain' puts you right about many truths and half-truths, from Nelson's eyepatch and the number of wives Henry VIII had, to where the word 'curry' comes from and the origins of the police helmet back in the 19th century.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2007

Reviews

[Simon Trelawney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pot pourri of fascinating, curious and arcane facts, rather complementing other recently consumed volumes such as Nigel Cawthorne’s ‘The Strange Laws of Old England’ and Jo Swinnerton’s ‘The History of Britain Companion’.
It is very much a jumble with little order or direction (nor bibliography, references nor index) though there is some attempt at categorisation. It is a book to dip into though I read it cover to cover in a couple of hours.
To give you a flavour of the book it sprawls randomly over everything from red telephone boxes to the history of bagpipes to a list of monarchs and prime ministers to a mini biography of Nelson to a history of the pub to who was Gordon Bennett to rhyming slang to Shakespeare to the Carry On films to the Beatles to football to the Routemaster Bus to… well you get the general idea. It scotches some common misconceptions and dispels ‘urban myths’ (incidentally why urban and nor rural?) such as that Nelson did not have an eye patch – though that has often been scotched, and casts all sorts of sidelights on obscure corners of Briish history.
I am not absolutely sure about the accuracy of everything contained within and there are some irritating spelling mistakes and other errors, but it is entertaining and informative.

[[ J o ] · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Yu82 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a collecion of facts, graphs, anecdotes about the UK, which, at times, can be quite amusing. However, in my opinion, mostly due to the lack of logic in the presentation of this information, it is boring to read. Besides, it lacks photos accompanying the described places, so for a non-native speaker it is quite hard sometimes to get into it.

[PastAllReason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Snippets of information about Britain are in easily digestible format. This book is amusing for picking and putting down quickly. I wouldn't trust all of the information in it, however.

[Craig Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Misnamed as it is really a miscellany of England. For example it lists the monarchs of England but not of any other part of Britain.