This cheerful poem has been written
To tell the history of Britain;
For People puzzled by the Past—
If this means YOU, here’s help at last!
From Celts to Churchill, it relates
(With all the most Important Dates)
Our country’s convoluted course . . .
Why Richard hollered for a horse;
Why Eleanor was such a catch;
Why no one liked the Spanish Match;
The pros and cons of Laissez Faire;
Smart Georgian ladies’ underwear;
Why Charles the Second went to plays;
Why Queen Jane reigned for just nine days;
The causes of the Irish trouble;
The bursting of the South Sea Bubble;
That giant glasshouse in Hyde Park;
The First World War’s igniting spark . . .
To tell the history of Britain;
For People puzzled by the Past—
If this means YOU, here’s help at last!
From Celts to Churchill, it relates
(With all the most Important Dates)
Our country’s convoluted course . . .
Why Richard hollered for a horse;
Why Eleanor was such a catch;
Why no one liked the Spanish Match;
The pros and cons of Laissez Faire;
Smart Georgian ladies’ underwear;
Why Charles the Second went to plays;
Why Queen Jane reigned for just nine days;
The causes of the Irish trouble;
The bursting of the South Sea Bubble;
That giant glasshouse in Hyde Park;
The First World War’s igniting spark . . .
Brought up with the iambic pentameters of Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Verses ringing in his ears, James Muirden has written his rhyming history of Britain in an equally simple and entertaining form. Charmingly irreverent, magically humorous yet rigorously accurate, and delightfully illustrated by David Eccles, this is the perfect gift for any Anglophile.
