52 Times Britain was a Bellend: The History You Didn't Get Taught At School

Basically, the book's title says it all. Little known stories (I wonder why?!) about terrible behaviour for reasons of money, or prestige, or ego, or madness, or just because we can. I'm a proud Englishmen but the things that have been done in the name of my country in years gone by - well, only a few are documented here - make me hang my head in shame. A good book, with easy and to the point chapters, outlining naughty and horrible stuff. And all written with a sense both of outrage and humour (in a sarcastic way). Highly recommended.

A humorous look at 52 examples of the British being, in the words of the author, ‘bellends’. The author really does deal with ‘the history you weren’t taught at school’. Topics covered concern both British foreign policy (the Chagos Islands, the Irish potato famine, the Opium Wars etc.) and domestic British issues (using geese to clean chimneys, highly questionable human experimentation at Portland Down, persecution of Catholics etc.). I like the format of the book: each topic is introduced by way of a humorous full-page diagram and then a page of text that gives the details, making it an easy read. However, due to its brief format, the book only outlines the events described, with a focus on the most extreme and morally questionable elements. It is, as is clear from its title, by no means a balanced or neutral account of the events described, but in conjunction with other more specialist books on the subjects provides an interesting counterpoint to the idea that the British have always acted in others’ best interests.

I really enjoyed the writing in this, it was funny but also informative.

I imagine the pitch by the Author (A) to the Publisher (P) went something like this: A: I have a few dozen tweets. Can I publish them as a book and make some easy money off them? P: Well, that sounds a bit skimpy. A book that we charge 8 quid for should be at least 150 pages. A: So what if I take 52 factoids, have each illustrated on a page by itself, and then write a wee bit more so that it's ideally one page plus a few lines. That's 3 pages per factoid, times 52, is over 150 pages, even if some are only 2 pages. P: It might work if you could add a bonus tweet, err, chapter, and we count the "Acknowledgements" and "About the author" sections and put a blank page between them. A: Can I also include an eleven-page ad for my other book? P: Deal! Okay, the facts are nicely horrible and the writing at times quite funny (although some facetious turns of phrase are repeated too often, e.g. the "I'm kidding of course" one). Realistically, this could have fit on 75 or so pages and should have been priced accordingly.

Entertaining, funny and very well written. But embarrassing if you're British, why did we do those things? But I thoroughly enjoyed it

This is an informative and amusing book on what for some may be a difficult subject, although not so difficult a subject that the most dishonest reviewer would throw their *Kindle Edition* in 'the bin', surely? To understand your country you must accept its flaws, and we are taught far too little about this in school. To have them served up in well written and wryly observed segments means that you can dip in and out of the book, use it as a platform for further investigation, or read through it all in one go. Felton has a well defined comedic sensibility, but even if you don't *get* the humour, the historical content itself is worth your time. Pace yourself to one entry per week if you want, and you can get a whole year of instances of national bellendery for your money. Not only do I rate this text highly, I also look forward to more from the same author.

This is a deceptively easy read, and an amusing one for the most part. In parts it is laugh-out-loud funny. Then you remember that these shameful events really did take place. I read it the week a UK government minister stood up in the country 's legislature and said they were going to break international law over the Northern Ireland Brexit protocols. Oh dear . . . Small point: the sarcastic, and at times vulgar, style of writing is fitting for the subject -matter, but there is a bit of an irony in calling out the British Establishment for centuries of racism and then using the term "c---" to describe some of the worst perpetrators.

A very humourous book, although very informative - with short chapters and very easily read. I'd love to see this added to the school curriculum.

James Felton has taken 52 historical incidents, mostly bad-to-awful, and somehow made them both funny and informative. Britain (like America) has done some truly horrible things, and history books tend to slide over the worst events. Reading about them with a humorous tone is really effective. Felton is a smart and funny writer, and I really loved this book.

Was well written and kept all the tunes we were bellends to a readable chunk. I think this could be the first of several volumes.

If you are looking for a Christmas present for your nearest and dearest, or even just a good friend, this book is ideal. It is interesting and well-researched, giving us a glimpse into parts of our history that we would prefer weren’t scrutinised at all, when the British (well, the English, really) weren’t at their finest, to put it mildly. I expect most countries will have skeletons hiding in their historical closets, but not all will have authors willing to scramble around in the detritus and dust to shine a light in them. James Felton does so with the required amount of humour to balance the horror of those horrible histories. The format is excellent, with a cartoon illustration on the one page and a shortish explanation of the historical fact on the facing page. Some of these are funny, some quirky, some downright horrendous. There are 52 of these histories, one for each week of the year...but it won’t take a year to read the book! I’m already looking forward to the next book.

Good read. Good timing for release.

Excellent book... but what I presume are the illustrations refuse to download to my phone, leaving a lot of blank pages.