1966 and All That [Hardcover]

'Everybody agrees that Craig Brown is our greatest parodist, but his brilliance goes beyond that...' - Sunday Telegraph 'The wittiest writer in Britain today.' - Stephen Fry 'Craig Brown's humour will outlive his victims... His journalism is one of the compensations for being British now.' - David Sexton, Sunday Telegraph 'Outstanding, endlessly inventive and irresistible.' - Lynne Truss 'Brilliant' - Julie Birchill

'Easily the funniest comic writer in Britain today, Craig Brown has precisely caught the genius of Sellar and Yeatman'

'We love Craig Brown!'

‘Outstanding, endlessly inventive and irresistible.’

'The wittiest writer in Britain today'

'A master satirist' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

An utterly brilliant follow-up to the humour classic, by Britain's funniest writer. 75 years on from the first publication of 1066 and All That, Craig Brown takes over where Sellars and Yeatman left off. With all the zest and exuberance of the original, 1966 and All That takes us on a half-remembered journey of imperial decline, loss of moustaches, The Sewers Crisis, angry young men, slightly cheesed-off young ladies, the onset of rock 'n' roll, the doomed romance of Princess Margaret and Pete Townshend, the decade of the Ironing Lady - and an unstoppable increase in the quantity of Royals. 1966 AND ALL THAT - all the modern history you can't remember, narrated in a way you can't begin to understand. There'll be an exam too, so please pay attention.

We had great fun with this one...one listen and you'll know why. The cast charge through Craig Brown's surreal version of history with huge enthusiasm, and the jokes arrive at such a furious pace you barely have time to catch a breath. We always suspected these barking mad history lessons would be a pleasure to do on audio, and here's the proof.

If you've ever laughed at anything, ever, you'll love this audiobook. If you haven't - well, buy it anyway. Your friends will enjoy it. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Craig Brown is the author of The Marsh Marlowe Letters, The Little Book of Chaos and The Hounding of John Thomas. His writings for Private Eye, the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Telegraph have won numerous awards. Craig Brown was recently named one of the 50 funniest people in Britain by The Observer and one of the 50 wisest people in Britain by Saga magazine. He was the only person to appear in both lists.

Chapter 1
THE END

Chapter 2

The Beginning of the End

History ended on 31 December 1918. It was the end of an error.

Chapter 3
The End of the Beginning of the End

History began again on 1 January 1919. It was the dawn of a new error.

Chapter 10
America Tries to Inch Ahead but Fails

In the 1920s, America tried to inch ahead of Britain, but Britain wasn't having it. First it was reported that Charles Iceberg and Amelia Earwig had flown single-handedly across the Atlantic. This upset the British, who had known how to fly single-handedly across the Atlantic for years, but hadn't got round to it. On further investigation, it was discovered that both the Americans had flown in aeroplanes, which didn't really count.

from Chapter 17
The Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War took place between (a) General Frankie Vaughan, the Spanish Florist leader and (b) a small but prestigious group of English and American authors. The authors included Earnest Humaway, author of For Whom the Kettle Boils. Humaway was interested in bulls and petit-point, but not necessarily in that order.

from Chapter 23
The Berlitz

For a year, the Nazi War Machine bombarded London with Teach Yourself German pamphlets. This period came to be known as the Berlitz. Throughout the war, communication proved a problem. Confronted by a British Tommy, German soldiers would invariably panic and scream nonsense, forcing the British Tommy to reach for his dictionary.
Some Useful Phrases: Achtung! Schweinhund! (I'm acting the giddy goat!) Donner und Blitzen! (Give me a reindeer!) Kommen sie hier! (They're a bit common here.)

from Chapter 25
The Royal Family at War

The Royal Family spent the war sitting in a bath with three inches of water, eating nothing but pork luncheon meat. On hearing news of the East End, the Queen Mother expressed shock that it should be there and vowed to pay it a visit at her earliest convenience. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent the war in Bermuda Shorts, attending to those of their friends who had recently been murdered by one another.

from Chapter 32
A New Elizabethan Age (2)

In 1952, Princess Elizabeth was halfway up a tree on Mount Everest when she heard the news of her father’s death.
She hastily returned to London with her husband Prince Philip to become Queen and usher in a new error.
The Queen’s Coronation – exactly fifty years before her Golden Jubilee – took place in black-and-white, as colour was still strictly rationed.
It was a magnificent ceremony, signalling the dawn of a new Elizabethan Age: an Englishman, Sir Gordon Richards, won the Derby; another Englishman, Sir Stanley Mathews, captained an English team to victory in the FA Cup. The annual Oxford and Cambridge boat race was won by an English crew. Meanwhile, an English athlete, Sir Roger Miles, became the first man to slide down a bannister in four minutes.

from Chapter 41
The Sixties Finally Get Going

By 1963, the 1950s had been going for nearly thirteen years. They might have continued for ever, but one day a wealthy entrepreneur called Albert Einstein happened to walk into a cavern in Liverpool and chanced upon the Sixties.
Standing on a stage no bigger than a shoebox were the Beatles, playing all the most famous Beatles songs, including 'Love me Do', 'She Loves You', 'And I Love Her', 'All You Need Is Love From Me To You', 'She Can't Buy Me Love Me Do' and 'I Feel I Want To Hold Your Hand And I Love Her From Me to All You Need Is Love Me Do'. The news of Einstein's historic discovery soon reached London. Everyone was once again proud to be British and started to swing.

from Chapter 47
Depressing Conversion

In 1971, just after the Beatles split up, the pound was decimated, which made everyone even more depressed. Decimation meant that the Penny Farthing was abolished, causing Britain to ride around on a cycle of depression.

from Chapter 61
A Decade of British Triumphs

In the 1980s, Britain regained her sense of ambition. From now on, she would no longer be the poor man of Europe; she would be the poor man of the World.
It was a decade of British triumphs. In 1980s, top British film-makers David Putty and Colin Welloff won an Oscar with Chariots for Hire, in which top British athletes Liddell and Large raced each other round an Oxford college on quad bikes.

from Chapter 69
An Historic Arrangement

The moment he died, John Smith became the most popular leader in the history of the Labour Party. It immediately rallied round him.
The party was forced to come to a difficult decision: many thought he should be replaced by someone still alive.
The two contenders, a young couple called Tony and Gordon, went out to dinner at an historic restaurant called Gravitas to decide on who should be the next Prime Minister. Under a clever deal, each man came away thinking it was him.

The Exam

1 Imagine you are a member of the Bloomsbury Grope. Give reasons.
2 Whose side was Franco on in the Franco-Prussian war?
3 Compare and contrast (a) the Desert Rat with (b) the Desert Fox. Provide recipes for both.
4 Why did the Coronation Chicken cross the road?
5 What would have happened to Mick Jagger if he had been able to get satisfaction? Answer on both sides of the sheets.
6 Who, if anyone, was the Prime Minister between Harold Wilson and Mrs Thatcherism? Did he wear glasses? List what you cannot remember about him, giving examples.
7 Attempt to forget each of the following: Teresa Gorman; Andrew Neil; Cabbage Patch Dolls; TVam; Amadeus; the Rubik’s Cube; Noel’s House Party; Bros.
8 Why did dringe binking become a clause for concern or whatever?
9. 'Things can only get b--ter' What are the missing letters? i) es, ii) it, iii) un, iv) ut.
If you have not answered in 45 minutes, this paper will self-destruct.