Another day, another book. This one’s a surface-level survey of the madness of various rulers going back a couple of thousand years. You know, stuff about the thousands and thousands of people that kings and queens would have destroyed on a whim. How quaint! It strengthens my resolve that there were no “good old days”, people. Things were not better then. Life was not so precious, lifestyles were miserable (no indoor plumbing or central heating? Helloooooo), lifespan was short and things smelled really, really bad.

This book helped me remember that.

I probably enjoyed it more than the regular populace would because of my recent, slighly embarrassing, interest in the history of the English monarchy. Granted the book goes well beyond Britain.

A mild warning: this book is typeset wretchedly; looks like it was created on someone’s home printer. Whoever did layout should be summarily pummeled. It also only shows its price in pounds sterling (suggesting it’s a UK-only edition?) but it can definitely be had on Amazon. Additionally, Tibballs is no Hemingway. His writing isn’t painful, but it relies heavily on hyperbole and vernacular idiom (expect some peculiar Briticisms).

If you like history or monarchy: *** (out of 5)
Else: **1/2 (out of 5)

Amazon info