History Without the Boring Bits by Ian Crofton

When the Titanic went down, Ian Crofton wryly informs us, the ship's owners, the White Star Line, lost no time in stopping the wages of the crew. History Without the Boring Bits delights in offering its readers a glimpse behind the scenes of conventional narratives of the past. Dating from 75 million years ago to the present day, each page is crammed full of fascinating snippets of fact that are little use to the reader but entertaining nevertheless. Thus we are told of the death of Sir Isaac Newton in 1727, commemorated in this instance as the inventor of the cat flap. Then there is the nonsensical story of Mary Toft, who achieved brief fame after apparently giving birth to several rabbits... all the way up to recent events like AN Wilson being tricked into calling himself 's shit' in his recent Betjeman biography. The scholarly historian will be left squirming in his seat as traditional history is overlooked in favour of a light-hearted analysis of our ancestors through the ages. That said, it will give him something to read in the toilet. Brimming with curiosities, History Without the Boring Bits is occasionally sickening, frequently humorous and endlessly intriguing. [Katie Gordon]