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The Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9 by Sarah Burton (view source)
Revision as of 11:09, 20 September 2013
, 11:09, 20 September 2013Created page with "{{infobox |title=The Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9 |sort=Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged ..."
{{infobox
|title=The Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9
|sort=Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9, The
|author=Sarah Burton
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Humour
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781780721835
|pages=96
|publisher=Short Books
|date=September 2013
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721838</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1780721838</amazonus>
|website=
|video=
|summary=A fun little book that takes the schoolboy howler meme and turns it into a full, characterful short novel.
}}
''Nobody knows where history ends'', according to the cover illustration of this little book, but if anybody knows what it involves it is nine year old Samuel Stewart. He captivatingly summarises it all on these pages, bringing us in ninety minutes from the times cavemen didn't write history down as they didn't realise it had started yet, up to the time of his birth. That of course is a time that passed most of us by, but heralded the arrival of a very individual, entertaining and amusing voice.
The good thing to report about this book is that despite its brevity it actually has a lot of different approaches to comedy. Yes, a lot are the usual schoolboy misunderstandings – Stewart quite regularly uses the wrong word or gets details a bit awry. Hence Cleopatra gave Britain a ''basilisk'', and the French who came over for the ''Norman Congress'' first lived in ''Mott and Hoople castles''. There's his often-times striking opinions about what was going on, which doesn't all revolve around character-illuminating examples of his battles with Chardonnay in class (like many people, Stewart isn't brilliant at sticking to the task at hand – well, he is only nine).
There are also brilliant bits, not of Stewart mishearing, but of misreading. Surely the fact that he gets William and Mary, and Queen Anne, and the characteristics of the furniture named after them all totally confused is due to misusing Wikipedia? Whatever, it is hilarious, as is the reasons Victorians did not want to be a Fallen Woman.
There are too some awkward surreal bits (a couple just made a whoosh noise in passing over my head, especially on page 63), and a naff ending where the author's opinions replace the jokes, but on the whole this is definitely more hit than miss. Florence Nightingale will never be seen in the same light again, for sure. I don’t think it will quite fit into the pantheon of historical classics people elsewhere might refer to, but however slender the volume, and however slender the conceit and concept might seem, this does have a lot of good content. It's very quotable, very much smile-raising, and certainly worth considering.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
[[Just My Typo: From 'sinning with the choir' to 'the large hardon collider' by Drummond Moir (compiler)]] has a lot more in the way of real-life howlers for you to cherish.
{{amazontext|amazon=1780721838}}
{{commenthead}}
|title=The Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9
|sort=Complete and Utter History of the World According to Samuel Stewart Aged 9, The
|author=Sarah Burton
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Humour
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781780721835
|pages=96
|publisher=Short Books
|date=September 2013
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721838</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>1780721838</amazonus>
|website=
|video=
|summary=A fun little book that takes the schoolboy howler meme and turns it into a full, characterful short novel.
}}
''Nobody knows where history ends'', according to the cover illustration of this little book, but if anybody knows what it involves it is nine year old Samuel Stewart. He captivatingly summarises it all on these pages, bringing us in ninety minutes from the times cavemen didn't write history down as they didn't realise it had started yet, up to the time of his birth. That of course is a time that passed most of us by, but heralded the arrival of a very individual, entertaining and amusing voice.
The good thing to report about this book is that despite its brevity it actually has a lot of different approaches to comedy. Yes, a lot are the usual schoolboy misunderstandings – Stewart quite regularly uses the wrong word or gets details a bit awry. Hence Cleopatra gave Britain a ''basilisk'', and the French who came over for the ''Norman Congress'' first lived in ''Mott and Hoople castles''. There's his often-times striking opinions about what was going on, which doesn't all revolve around character-illuminating examples of his battles with Chardonnay in class (like many people, Stewart isn't brilliant at sticking to the task at hand – well, he is only nine).
There are also brilliant bits, not of Stewart mishearing, but of misreading. Surely the fact that he gets William and Mary, and Queen Anne, and the characteristics of the furniture named after them all totally confused is due to misusing Wikipedia? Whatever, it is hilarious, as is the reasons Victorians did not want to be a Fallen Woman.
There are too some awkward surreal bits (a couple just made a whoosh noise in passing over my head, especially on page 63), and a naff ending where the author's opinions replace the jokes, but on the whole this is definitely more hit than miss. Florence Nightingale will never be seen in the same light again, for sure. I don’t think it will quite fit into the pantheon of historical classics people elsewhere might refer to, but however slender the volume, and however slender the conceit and concept might seem, this does have a lot of good content. It's very quotable, very much smile-raising, and certainly worth considering.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
[[Just My Typo: From 'sinning with the choir' to 'the large hardon collider' by Drummond Moir (compiler)]] has a lot more in the way of real-life howlers for you to cherish.
{{amazontext|amazon=1780721838}}
{{commenthead}}