1066 and All That

From Freepedia

1066 and All That is a work of tongue-in-cheek fake history by W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman.

First appearing serially in Punch magazine, it was published in book form by Methuen & Co. Ltd. in 1930.

The book is a parody of the style of history teaching in English schools at the time. It purports to contain "all the history you can remember", and covers the history of Britain from Roman times through 1066 and all that, up to the end of World War I, at which time "America became Top Nation, and history came to a .". (Note that this chapter is nonetheless titled "A Bad Thing".) As such, Sellar and Yeatman anticipated Francis Fukuyama by several decades.

The title page states that the book comprises "103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates", while the book's preface (which is compulsory) mentions that originally four dates were planned, but last minute research revealed that two of them were not memorable. The two dates that are in the book are 1066 (the Battle of Hastings and the Norman invasion of Britain) and 55 BC (the first Roman invasion of Britain under Julius Caesar). Interestingly, the book also includes mention of the fact that Caesar was "compelled to invade again the following year (54 BC, not 56, owing to the peculiar Roman method of counting)".

Famous phrases from the book include "This was a Good Thing"; "This was a Bad Thing"; "Wave of saints"; and "Do you consider yourself a Good King or a Bad King?". It also contains several joke test papers interspersed among the chapters, which contain nonsense instructions including the famous "On no account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once" and "Do not attempt to answer more than one question at a time".

Despite the humour, the book provides a reasonable overview of British history.