The Greatest Nobodies of History
Minor Characters from Major Moments
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Buy Now for £12.99
-
Narrated by:
-
Adrian Bliss
-
By:
-
Adrian Bliss
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Narrated by Adrian Bliss, featuring the voices of Beth Rylance, Sebastian Humphreys and Kristin Atherton.
History belongs to the heroes. But to get the full story, sometimes you have to ask the side characters.
The lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Henry VIII and Queen Victoria fill bookshelves and fascinate scholars all over the world. But little attention is given to the ferret who posed for the renaissance master, the servant who oversaw the Tudor’s toilet time, or the famous horse who thrilled the miserable old monarch.
These supporting cast members have been waiting in the wings for too long, and Adrian Bliss thinks it’s high time they join their glory-hogging contemporaries in the spotlight. Fortunately, - thanks to some recently discovered ancient complaint letters, court transcripts and memoirs in bottles - now they can.
Equal parts fascinating and hilarious, The Greatest Nobodies of History is a surreal love letter to life’s forgotten heroes featuring hitherto undocumented accounts from Ancient Greece to the frontlines of the Great Emu War.
All that follows really happened, and some of it could even be true...
'All at once funny, touching, dazzlingly informative and fascinating, brilliantly imaginative and altogether wonderful. Capable of switching between divine silliness and genuinely tender sweetness, tragedy and wonder.' Stephen Fry
Thank you so much ☆☆☆☆☆
AMAZING!! So funny and well read ☆☆☆☆☆
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyable easy read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The stories & facts
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting, but Hard to Tell Fact from Fiction
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Pros: the stories are unlike anything you're likely to have heard before, even if you know the facts of them. And the narration was brilliant. He does sound so much like David Mitchell (comedian) though, and especially with being a bit 'posh' and talking about history, that I sometimes found myself forgetting it wasn't actually Mr Mitchell doing the narration. So if you don't like Mitchell's voice and sarcy attitude (I do) then this may not be overly pleasing to you.
Cons: many chapters, each a different tale, follow a 'diary' format of either actual diary entries including dates and times, or letters back and forth that are only different to a diary in that they're written by two individuals . It becomes rather wearing. The second annoyance was that sometimes, the author just didn't know when to stop. In four cases, I found he'd gone considerably past the point of humour and onto 'this will make you lose interest'. I blame the editor for not doing a better job before publishing the book.
That said, I'd absolutely buy another book/audiobook in the same vein by Adrian Bliss as I found it to be highly entertaining. Me shopping in the supermarket with a serious face on and then suddenly squawking with laughter happened on multiple occasions. Worth every penny.
laughed out loud in public
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.