Richard Happer

When I picked up this book it was to fulfil a challenge where I needed to read a book about sports otherwise I wouldn’t have even picked this book up. However, I’m glad I did. The different competitions contained within it range from the interesting to the absolute bizarre. It was a great deal of fun to read as well as being very educational.

It was fun learning about so many strange and unusual sports that people will compete in that most people wouldn’t even entertain the idea of doing. An interesting fact was the number of these competitions which originated in England - that at first glance seemed odd to have had their origins there. Another fact, was the number of competitions which began as a result of discussions between men in a pub. Some of these included, Welly Wanging (pg 36), Stinging Nettle Eating (pg 47), Bog Snorkelling (pg 70), and Lying (pg 242). Other competitions of interest were Caber Tossing which started because a Scottish highlander noticed that a birch tree branch had fallen down so he wanted to see how far he could throw it. Then there was Wife Carrying and Bee Wearing (also called Bearding). This is just a small sample of the competitions covered in this wonderful book.… (mer)

“The Union Jack…has…become an English stereotype, a symbol that reflects English pride all under one red, white and blue (flag).”
So, hands up all those who spotted the two errors in the above quote from the first entry in the book. For all those who are unaware of the errors the following may help. The Union Jack is the British flag not the English flag. The English flag is red and white and is contained within the British along with the Irish and Scottish flags. The words English and British are not transposable. They both mean different things. All that the author has done is to insult some of his intended audience; the Scottish, Welsh and Irish readers. Not an auspicious start and it doesn’t get much better.
Apart from the fact that many of the entries have the appearance of having been cut and pasted from Wikipedia, there are many factual errors.
Michael Caine first film is stated as Zulu when in fact it was the 1956 film, A Hill in Korea.
In relation to the entry on the writing of Daffodils by William Wordsworth, the author writes that it was written in 1802. It was written between 1804 and 1807. Wordsworth was inspired to write the poem in 1802 but did not start to write it until 1804.
These are only two of the many I encountered and there may be many others that I didn’t notice.
However, put in perspective, the book is a bit of light-hearted fun and I assuming it’s not to be taken seriously. It shines through that the author had a lot of fun writing the book and it certainly is written with a comic tongue in cheek tone. It probably should be read in the same way.
Is one going to learn anything? Not if one has an ‘O’ level or GCSE in British history.
Many of the entries are certainly debatable as to whether they constitute the epithet of ‘proud to be British’ but the majority certainly do achieve that aim.
Enjoy the book for what it is a piece of light reading that one can dip into as they await the Sandman to arrive.… (mer)