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The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Book
This book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them.
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside a funny, brand new text.
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside a funny, brand new text.
56 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 25, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
December 16, 2019
Despair of Friday 13th, the day after the 2019 General Election
When I posted this review three weeks ago, it seemed like a weak joke. After the referendum, Brexit was always highly likely. But I'd been holding out for a soft Brexit at worst, and ideally a confirmatory referendum on the deal, opening the sliver of a chance of cancelling the whole thing. That's all changed. The scale of Johnson’s majority is staggering, partly because it was so unexpected (even to Tories). The Tories didn't win so much as Labour lost catastrophically. People hated Corbyn and were persuaded by the brilliantly beguiling lie, "Get Brexit Done". The day we leave will be the beginning of years more turmoil, discussing and negotiating multiple trade deals, with contradictory requirements from different parties, especially the EU and America First. And time is tight, so we may well still crash out without a deal at the end of 2020. With Scotland more eager to gain independence (partly to rejoin the EU) and Ireland likely to unite in the slightly longer term, I'll end up resident of FUKEW .
Hope?
Read this powerful speech by Jo Swinson, the LibDem leader who lost her seat to a Scottish Nationalist.
She mentions how racism has become mainstream. She's worried about our future relationship with the EU and with our fellow UK citizens, as am I.
But she exhorts people to stay true to what they believe and to foster hope, rather than despair, quoting Vaclav Havel's hope as "a state of mind, not a state of the world".
Her closing thoughts:
"We will see more light in the future...
Let’s explore the way together, with hope in our hearts."
Review
Probably the only Brexit-related issue that Brits can agree on is that it’s divided our country more widely and deeply than anything else in our lifetime. Ripe for humour, but risky, too.
Image: It’s hard to love your neighbour, or even some of your family.
This book teases all the stereotypes, targeting Brexiters rather more than remainers.
That’s almost all it is: a different, unoriginal caricature on every page.
It’s like shooting fish in a barrel - without EU sustainability quotas or quality standards.
Image: Montmorency De Douchelord Ponsonby-Fring wants ordinary people to send a strong message to an out-of-touch elite.
Another cop-out is that it avoids explicit mention of any individuals.
Cameron is obliquely referenced:
“The Prime Minister organised the referendum because he was sure everybody would want things to stay exactly as they were”.
When that failed, he ran away to his shed. (The picture of a shed is not as fancy as the one where he wrote his book.)
Johnson and Farage get a nameless nod for the bus with the infamous lie:
“We send the EU £350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead.”
Image: "A bus is a very good way to convey important information."
For the authors, May might never have existed. Actually, that’s a fair point; history may concur.
A mashup
The text is satire aimed at grown-ups, using the traditional Ladybird font and layout. The illustrations are from miscellaneous, unnamed Ladybird books that British children of my generation grew up with:
“Artists whose luminous work formed the glorious wallpaper of countless childhoods.”
Image: “Being in the EU is terribly complicated... something about freedom and bananas.”
More in the same, Ladybird, vein
Other titles allegedly in this series 999 (why not 666?) are listed on the back, numbered in this order:
5. The Story of the English Civil War
4. The Story of Ketchup or Brown Sauce
3. The Story of Blur vs Oasis
2. The Story of Sawing a Lady in Half
1. The Story of The Runaway Prime Minister
Other - real - Grown-Up Ladybirds include:
* A Ladybird Book About Donald Trump HERE, which I thought very funny.
* How It Works: The Wife, which I reviewed HERE, along with the companion, How It Works: The Husband. I thought both were mediocre.
And then there’s the brilliant Miriam Elia, who has created spoofs using her own, original illustrations, in the style of Ladybird, using the imprint Dung Beetle. See We Go to the Gallery, which I reviewed HERE. I think it’s the best of the bunch.
Back to Brexit jokes
Farage goes to the pub and asks for a pint.
The barman pulls it and then throws it in his face.
“Why did you do that?” Farage asks.
“You asked for a pint”, the barman says, “but you didn't say how you wanted it delivered”.
Farage replies, “OK, I’ll have a pint in a pint glass, please”.
“No. You can't ask again”, the barman says.
“Why not?” Farage asks.
“Democracy”, the barman replies.
xkcd is funnier and truer on the subject of Brexit - and most other things - than Ladybird:
Image: Narnia joined the EU after we did - yet another border.
When I posted this review three weeks ago, it seemed like a weak joke. After the referendum, Brexit was always highly likely. But I'd been holding out for a soft Brexit at worst, and ideally a confirmatory referendum on the deal, opening the sliver of a chance of cancelling the whole thing. That's all changed. The scale of Johnson’s majority is staggering, partly because it was so unexpected (even to Tories). The Tories didn't win so much as Labour lost catastrophically. People hated Corbyn and were persuaded by the brilliantly beguiling lie, "Get Brexit Done". The day we leave will be the beginning of years more turmoil, discussing and negotiating multiple trade deals, with contradictory requirements from different parties, especially the EU and America First. And time is tight, so we may well still crash out without a deal at the end of 2020. With Scotland more eager to gain independence (partly to rejoin the EU) and Ireland likely to unite in the slightly longer term, I'll end up resident of FUKEW .
Hope?
Read this powerful speech by Jo Swinson, the LibDem leader who lost her seat to a Scottish Nationalist.
She mentions how racism has become mainstream. She's worried about our future relationship with the EU and with our fellow UK citizens, as am I.
But she exhorts people to stay true to what they believe and to foster hope, rather than despair, quoting Vaclav Havel's hope as "a state of mind, not a state of the world".
Her closing thoughts:
"We will see more light in the future...
Let’s explore the way together, with hope in our hearts."
Review
Probably the only Brexit-related issue that Brits can agree on is that it’s divided our country more widely and deeply than anything else in our lifetime. Ripe for humour, but risky, too.
Image: It’s hard to love your neighbour, or even some of your family.
This book teases all the stereotypes, targeting Brexiters rather more than remainers.
That’s almost all it is: a different, unoriginal caricature on every page.
It’s like shooting fish in a barrel - without EU sustainability quotas or quality standards.
Image: Montmorency De Douchelord Ponsonby-Fring wants ordinary people to send a strong message to an out-of-touch elite.
Another cop-out is that it avoids explicit mention of any individuals.
Cameron is obliquely referenced:
“The Prime Minister organised the referendum because he was sure everybody would want things to stay exactly as they were”.
When that failed, he ran away to his shed. (The picture of a shed is not as fancy as the one where he wrote his book.)
Johnson and Farage get a nameless nod for the bus with the infamous lie:
“We send the EU £350 million a week, let's fund our NHS instead.”
Image: "A bus is a very good way to convey important information."
For the authors, May might never have existed. Actually, that’s a fair point; history may concur.
A mashup
The text is satire aimed at grown-ups, using the traditional Ladybird font and layout. The illustrations are from miscellaneous, unnamed Ladybird books that British children of my generation grew up with:
“Artists whose luminous work formed the glorious wallpaper of countless childhoods.”
Image: “Being in the EU is terribly complicated... something about freedom and bananas.”
More in the same, Ladybird, vein
Other titles allegedly in this series 999 (why not 666?) are listed on the back, numbered in this order:
5. The Story of the English Civil War
4. The Story of Ketchup or Brown Sauce
3. The Story of Blur vs Oasis
2. The Story of Sawing a Lady in Half
1. The Story of The Runaway Prime Minister
Other - real - Grown-Up Ladybirds include:
* A Ladybird Book About Donald Trump HERE, which I thought very funny.
* How It Works: The Wife, which I reviewed HERE, along with the companion, How It Works: The Husband. I thought both were mediocre.
And then there’s the brilliant Miriam Elia, who has created spoofs using her own, original illustrations, in the style of Ladybird, using the imprint Dung Beetle. See We Go to the Gallery, which I reviewed HERE. I think it’s the best of the bunch.
Back to Brexit jokes
Farage goes to the pub and asks for a pint.
The barman pulls it and then throws it in his face.
“Why did you do that?” Farage asks.
“You asked for a pint”, the barman says, “but you didn't say how you wanted it delivered”.
Farage replies, “OK, I’ll have a pint in a pint glass, please”.
“No. You can't ask again”, the barman says.
“Why not?” Farage asks.
“Democracy”, the barman replies.
xkcd is funnier and truer on the subject of Brexit - and most other things - than Ladybird:
Image: Narnia joined the EU after we did - yet another border.
wish-list
April 29, 2019
Description: This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them.
The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text.
January 1, 2019
Ladybird books were a familiar theme in my school days, simple books for primary school kids explaining all sorts of facets of a complex world.
Recently they have been brought back as a series for adults and have been a marketing smash. I would hazard a guess that they have made a pretty penny for their authors, and good luck to them.
This book is a noddy guide to Brexit, supposedly balanced if you read the blurb on the back, though I sense that the authors are remainers. It is very funny in a black humour manner.
Brexit .......... what can I say. Even now, thirty months on, I find it deeply depressing that 17.4m of my compatriots could fall for simplistic tosh (the generous interpretation) or are plainly racist. Most of all I find it incomprehensible that our politicians refuse to lead us out of the ensuing mess. Hey ho, there`ll always be an England.
Bring on the Eloi and Morlocks.
Recently they have been brought back as a series for adults and have been a marketing smash. I would hazard a guess that they have made a pretty penny for their authors, and good luck to them.
This book is a noddy guide to Brexit, supposedly balanced if you read the blurb on the back, though I sense that the authors are remainers. It is very funny in a black humour manner.
Brexit .......... what can I say. Even now, thirty months on, I find it deeply depressing that 17.4m of my compatriots could fall for simplistic tosh (the generous interpretation) or are plainly racist. Most of all I find it incomprehensible that our politicians refuse to lead us out of the ensuing mess. Hey ho, there`ll always be an England.
Bring on the Eloi and Morlocks.
January 20, 2019
Inner rational voice: How dare you spend money! We're broke.
Reader Me: Look, I really need to laugh, okay. This is really funny. See?
Inner rational voice: The bit about the shed and the PM is so great.
Reader Me: And the cheese. The bit about cheese.
Reader Me: Look, I really need to laugh, okay. This is really funny. See?
Inner rational voice: The bit about the shed and the PM is so great.
Reader Me: And the cheese. The bit about cheese.
December 28, 2018
Definitely don't waste money buying this for yourself. Buy it as a present for someone else and cheekily read it before wrapping it, maybe while eating your dinner.
February 17, 2019
The gimmick of "Ladybirds for Grown-Ups" relies on two things:
- explaining things through the medium of simple, childlike sentences, to comic and insightful effect
- taking old pictures out of context, and amusingly recontextualising them through captions for which they weren't intended.
It's a simplistic approach to comedy, but it's an easy way to milk some wry smiles at worst, and occasional hilarity, which is why there are dozens of these things, plus imitators.
The problem is, sometimes an easy method discourages effort; and this entry falls far more into the category of 'wry smiles' than of 'hilarity'.
Underlyingly the difficulty these authors faced was that it was too hard for them to go wrong. Using childlike sentences to point out how stupid Brexiteers are is not difficult - it's what most of our newspapers and broadcasters do, intentionally or not, every single day. When you have a Brexit Secretary who gets up and says that he's studied international trade carefully, and has discovered that because of the unique geography of the UK (i.e. we're an island), trade is very concentrated along certain routes (i.e. between ports) and that he'd never previously realised that trade between Dover and Calais was particularly significant... you can't satirise that. That already is satire. When you have a Northern Ireland Secretary who, opining on the complexities of the border question, admits that she had never previously realised that the nationalist and loyalist communities in northern ireland vote for different political parties... there's no way to parody that. It already is parody. A lot of modern British "satire" is therefore reduced to just quoting people verbatim, because art can't possibly out-absurdity reality right now.
Likewise, although this book doesn't directly quote people, it struggles to rise above the baseline humour of reality.
For instance, here's one of the better pages:
Vernon is not worried about foreign workers leaving.
"British people can mop up in hospitals and supervise vetinary conditions in abattoirs and stand in fields picking beans," he says.
Vernon will not be doing those jobs himself, of course. He is 63.
He is thinking of his nephew, Clobbo, who spends all day watching Fortnite videos on Twitch
...it's well-phrased, sure. But... anti-immigrant, check. Jobs we don't want, check. Old people making decisions for young people, check. Culture clash between generations, check. It's just a list of the "why Brexit is a bad idea and Brexiteers are bad people" talking points that we all hear and recite all day, every day. Similarly the jokes about British jam (nobody wants our jam, and getting rid of EU food regulations just means unsafe jam) or about buses (ha! the things people write on the sides of buses! ha!). Talking about Europe being desparate to buy "any of our several mild cheeses"? That's not satire, that's pretty much just quoting Boris Johnson word for word and pointing at it.
The book is actually better when it betrays elements of sympathy for Brexiteers. I quite like the page about Diggory, the civil servant:
[Diggory] has spent two years enacting the will of the people.
It is not the will of any people he actually knows, so he has not really done much towards it.
-------------
At the same time, because the Brexit subject matter is such an easy target, little effort has gone into the picture side - these are mostly just boring pictures, interpreted literally, which is a huge waste of potential. Indeed, some of the pictures are amusing, in ways not really picked up by the captions.
-----
All that said, the small book is worth its purchase price* for a single page, which shows what the book should have been doing all along, in terms of working a little harder to go beyond the obvious.
The picture: a shed in the wilderness.
The caption:
The Prime Minister organised the referendum because he was sure everybody would want things to stay exactly as they were.
But it turned out that not everybody was having as nice a time as the Prime Minister.
So the Prime Minister ran away.
It was quiet in the Prime Minister's shed.
The other pages don't live up to this.
*I've just seen the RRP. Turns out, no, it's not worth the purchase price. I mean, it's an amusing five minutes, but it's not all that.
- explaining things through the medium of simple, childlike sentences, to comic and insightful effect
- taking old pictures out of context, and amusingly recontextualising them through captions for which they weren't intended.
It's a simplistic approach to comedy, but it's an easy way to milk some wry smiles at worst, and occasional hilarity, which is why there are dozens of these things, plus imitators.
The problem is, sometimes an easy method discourages effort; and this entry falls far more into the category of 'wry smiles' than of 'hilarity'.
Underlyingly the difficulty these authors faced was that it was too hard for them to go wrong. Using childlike sentences to point out how stupid Brexiteers are is not difficult - it's what most of our newspapers and broadcasters do, intentionally or not, every single day. When you have a Brexit Secretary who gets up and says that he's studied international trade carefully, and has discovered that because of the unique geography of the UK (i.e. we're an island), trade is very concentrated along certain routes (i.e. between ports) and that he'd never previously realised that trade between Dover and Calais was particularly significant... you can't satirise that. That already is satire. When you have a Northern Ireland Secretary who, opining on the complexities of the border question, admits that she had never previously realised that the nationalist and loyalist communities in northern ireland vote for different political parties... there's no way to parody that. It already is parody. A lot of modern British "satire" is therefore reduced to just quoting people verbatim, because art can't possibly out-absurdity reality right now.
Likewise, although this book doesn't directly quote people, it struggles to rise above the baseline humour of reality.
For instance, here's one of the better pages:
Vernon is not worried about foreign workers leaving.
"British people can mop up in hospitals and supervise vetinary conditions in abattoirs and stand in fields picking beans," he says.
Vernon will not be doing those jobs himself, of course. He is 63.
He is thinking of his nephew, Clobbo, who spends all day watching Fortnite videos on Twitch
...it's well-phrased, sure. But... anti-immigrant, check. Jobs we don't want, check. Old people making decisions for young people, check. Culture clash between generations, check. It's just a list of the "why Brexit is a bad idea and Brexiteers are bad people" talking points that we all hear and recite all day, every day. Similarly the jokes about British jam (nobody wants our jam, and getting rid of EU food regulations just means unsafe jam) or about buses (ha! the things people write on the sides of buses! ha!). Talking about Europe being desparate to buy "any of our several mild cheeses"? That's not satire, that's pretty much just quoting Boris Johnson word for word and pointing at it.
The book is actually better when it betrays elements of sympathy for Brexiteers. I quite like the page about Diggory, the civil servant:
[Diggory] has spent two years enacting the will of the people.
It is not the will of any people he actually knows, so he has not really done much towards it.
-------------
At the same time, because the Brexit subject matter is such an easy target, little effort has gone into the picture side - these are mostly just boring pictures, interpreted literally, which is a huge waste of potential. Indeed, some of the pictures are amusing, in ways not really picked up by the captions.
-----
All that said, the small book is worth its purchase price* for a single page, which shows what the book should have been doing all along, in terms of working a little harder to go beyond the obvious.
The picture: a shed in the wilderness.
The caption:
The Prime Minister organised the referendum because he was sure everybody would want things to stay exactly as they were.
But it turned out that not everybody was having as nice a time as the Prime Minister.
So the Prime Minister ran away.
It was quiet in the Prime Minister's shed.
The other pages don't live up to this.
*I've just seen the RRP. Turns out, no, it's not worth the purchase price. I mean, it's an amusing five minutes, but it's not all that.
December 25, 2018
Absolutely brilliant pisstake of the stupidest decision this country has ever made. We might be deep in the shit, but at least this made me laugh about it for five minutes. :)
April 25, 2019
BLOODY LEFTIES!!
WE VOTED TO LEAVE, WHY HAVEN'T WE LEFT!!
IT'S THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE
WE VOTED TO LEAVE, WHY HAVEN'T WE LEFT!!
IT'S THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE
April 12, 2019
Not as hilarious as the mommy books, but funny nonetheless.
November 5, 2019
The worst thing about being bookseller is pretending to find this funny.
December 31, 2018
A good chuckle and will make a great regifting at some point. It's not really a book you reread
January 20, 2019
A fabulously funny read, a real tickler. Worth a look.
July 8, 2019
I’ve read a bunch of these Ladybird for adults books by now, but I always enjoy them. This poked fun at Brexit. Good stuff!
September 11, 2019
I found this book in a b+b whilst on holiday in America. It took 5 minutes to read and hillariously portrays the abserdity of the B-word.
May 8, 2021
Short and entertaining, this little satirical book won't add anything to what you already knew about Brexit, but the pairing of text and illustrations is often hilarious and definitely makes for an entertaining 10-15 minutes.
December 14, 2024
Heel fijn Brits droogkomisch - met hilarische illustratie pairing
October 22, 2019
Project Fear; Remoaner propaganda! Fundamentally it's the same joke throughout, but it's hard not to laugh - mostly because you'd cry yourself to sleep in the gutter if you actually stopped to think about what we're doing.
January 29, 2021
Some of these Ladybirds for Grown-Ups are excellent - laugh out loud funny and a very good read - unfortunately, this is not one of them. At best, it is mildly amusing.
November 20, 2018
I still enjoyed reading it, but did think it would be different to what it was. I think also not being British I could appreciate the tragedy of it more knowing I could get out of it.
December 7, 2018
Nailed it.
December 11, 2018
Funny as funny can be. Manages to poke a bit of fun at Remainers too, but brexiteers should be apoplectic while reading this. Definitely not recommended for jingos
April 8, 2019
Silly fluff that I got as a Christmas present. If only it were a less dire situation.
January 28, 2019
This book sits on the fence and makes fun of everyone, but it's relatively funny.
January 31, 2019
Rather like John Crace's work (see I Maybot and the daily political sketches in the Guardian) this would be a lot funnier if it wasn't quite so painful.
Still, I will be re-reading this a few times!
Still, I will be re-reading this a few times!
Read
March 12, 2019Not bad as such, just too depressingly accurate to be funny.
August 5, 2019
Too funny to explain, yet sadly pretty accurate... I wonder if they'll update it with a Boris version??
February 4, 2020
Found it at Daunt Books while wondering around. Very English, no further comment needed. :-)
May 6, 2024
A bit of a laugh, the Story of Brexit offers a light hearted take on Brexit. Given it has been five years since 2019, it offers an interesting comical look over Britain's choice but I wouldn't say it is entirely insightful. Rather, like all adult Ladybird Books, the comical effect is from pictures being attached to text taken out of context.
What is different is the majority of Goodread reviews of The Story of Brexit happened before 2020. Looking back, has it aged well? I don't know, given that Brexit as a project has become a damp squib, particularly in the fact that there aren't any real bonuses and a whole lot of costs. Perhaps my Remain supporting position taints my view of reading this book, but it is a rather comical book if slightly dated.
What is different is the majority of Goodread reviews of The Story of Brexit happened before 2020. Looking back, has it aged well? I don't know, given that Brexit as a project has become a damp squib, particularly in the fact that there aren't any real bonuses and a whole lot of costs. Perhaps my Remain supporting position taints my view of reading this book, but it is a rather comical book if slightly dated.
July 24, 2020
The best things about these books is the vintage artwork and trying to see if you remember any from ladybird books you had as a child. There’s an illustration in this one that I’m sure if from a copy of Cinderella I had as a child (that I loved because of the artwork!).
January 6, 2020
Hilarious!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews