Unruly by David Mitchell takes a plunge into the world of the English monarchs from the time where England first became "England" after the Romans left, right up to Queen Elizabeth I. It's an irreverent look at the ups and downs of ruling (mostly downs!) and of being ruled by a person who is either a thug, or thinks they have a god given right to rule, or indeed, both. As a comedian who studied history at Cambridge University, the author obviously has a soft spot for his subject, but holds no punches when describing what they get up to. These lucky individuals attained great power - usually through the happy chance of who their parents were, but sometimes by force. But no matter how they came to the throne, they are portrayed as a bunch of narcissists, with little if any self-control who lived fast and usually died very young. There are many beheadings, wars and general shenanigans. I'm not sure any of them come out with much glory and it certainly is NOT a ringing endorsement of the monarchy as an institution. Told at break neck speed, it's often tricky to keep track of who is who (particularly in the audio edition which I read), so I'm not sure I actually learned a great deal. However, it is fairly entertaining though immensely sweary ... a lot more than I was expecting ... which got in the way for me and became very wearing after a while. I would have loved more facts or indeed, time spent on individual monarchs rather than the dismissive snipes that some of them came and went with incredibly rapidly. But I suppose we all have our favourites! A slight disappointment, but fun in places.
My STAR rating: THREE.
Length: 448 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.
