View source for Philip Ardagh's Book of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Rotten Wart-Nosed Commoners by Philip Ardagh

{{infobox2
|title=Philip Ardagh's Book of Kings, Queens, Emperors and Rotten Wart-Nosed Commoners
|author=Philip Ardagh
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0330471732
|pages=384
|publisher=Macmillan
|date=October 2011
|aznuk=0330471732
|aznus=0330471732
|cover=0330471732
|website=
|video=
|summary=A quirky - if at times too over-the-place - look at our Royal history.
}}

If you deem a good children's historical trivia book to be one that tells you, the adult, something they didn't know about historical trivia, then this is a good example.  I didn't know George V broke his pelvis when his horse fell on him, startled by some post-WWI huzzahs.  I didn't know Charles VI of France nearly got torched in some drunken bacchanal.  The length of time Charlemagne sat on a throne (over 400 whole years (even if he wasn't wholly whole all that time)) was news to me, as was the raffle that was held (more or less) for being the unknown soldier.  Therefore this is a good book for children and the adults willing to instill some historical trivia into them.

But on the other hand, it's not a good example.  Things are treated too trivially, and as such appear scattershot throughout the book and on the page.  Queen Victoria's Mr Brown is here, and here, and here.  Matilda is on page 222 and on 233, and needn't be.  The large, child-friendly print means stories that should take one page lapse onto two - and when they break off at the end of the paragraph there's often no clue that the story is to continue (page 218 of my edition is an example).

It seemed to me this was an attempt to be as random as possible, and to make sure that this book in no way shape or form fitted the format of anyone else's historical trivia for kids book.  This one does have a gamut of great, fun information, and anyone will learn something (unless they are [[Category:Philip Ardagh|Beardy Ardagh]] himself, but it could have justified its existence and wide range of selections through a bit more attention and forethought.

There might be no mention of a certain stuttering king, and some things left unexplained because they can't be (King John's crown jewels' whereabouts) or could be explored further (whatever happened to Roanake mark one, the entirety of the Wars of the Roses), but to repeat there is a welter of entertainment here, so I can't dismiss the book out of hand.  I would though have preferred a straighter edge to the telling - chaptering by subject, chronology, whatever - that would have made this book much more of a realistically educational volume.

I must still thank the publishers' kind people for my review copy.

History - Royal and beyond - hardly comes brighter than in [[The Comic Strip History of the World by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner]].  Philip Ardagh also gave us [[Philip Ardagh's Book of Howlers, Blunders and Random Mistakery by Philip Ardagh|a look at mistakes throughout the years]], which I enjoyed more.

{{amazontext|amazon=0330471732}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=0330471732}}

{{commenthead}}

[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Trivia]]