I admire these because they give students a clear indication of the politically correct line to take as with 'Outline joyfully (1) Henry VIII, (2) Stout Cortez'. The book has a modern format and appends test questions to every chapter. Though long books have been written on the subject, the following captures the gist of the Divine Right of Kings: '(a) He was King and that was right (b) Kings were divine, and that was right (c) Kings were right, and that was right (d) Everything was all right.' It is essential to keep these distinctions clearly in mind and verse visa.' More worryingly, it exposes the thinness of so many of the concepts and devices of historical writing.Ĭonsider this succinct summary of early Scottish history: 'The Scots (originally Irish, but by now Scotch) were at this time inhabiting Ireland, having driven the Irish (Picts) out of Scotland while the Picts (originally Scots) were now Irish (living in brackets) and vice versa. It never misses the point but caricatures it, turns it upside down or puts it in the wrong place. More importantly, it is both brilliantly funny and a reminder to the professional historian of the need for humility.įor those of us who spend weeks every year contemplating examination papers, the evidence of what students remember, Sellar's and Yeatman's satire is on one level an extended examination paper, a nightmare paper, brilliant in its awfulness. 1066 And All That has thus a claim to be regarded as an early post-modernist text. It is a book which can be approached on many levels.Īs the 'Compulsory Preface' to this great historical work puts it, history is '.what you can remember'. He loved 1066 And All That, not just for its satire, but for the affection behind the satire. He, a journalist turned policeman by the economic fortunes of the 1930s, had not had such an opportunity, but in the everyday sense he too read history.

My father, a man of genial but sceptical disposition, refrained from introducing me to this remarkable book until I had decided to read history.

Wc sellar and rj yeatman