Unruly is part Horrible Histories part jolly romp guided by Alan Bennett. Perhaps this is how history should be done: not by patient scholars, but by free-swearing actor-comedians cramming more ideas and jokes into their pages than many professionals have committed to print in their careers.

Full of jokes and canny insights, 100 per cent sparkier and more revernt than your school textbooks

An enjoyable, rollicking read, definitely not a conventional history book

I don’t think anyone other than David Mitchell could have written this book. It’s clever, funny and makes you think quite differently about history we thought we knew

By turns fascinating and funny – there is a jewel of an insight or a refreshing blast of clarifying wit on every page. David brings a delightfully contrary and hilariously cantankerous eye to the history of the English Monarchy. Informative, illuminating and very very funny

Mitchell clearly knows his history, with a book that owes as much to Monty Python as it does to Simon Schama

A Peep Show history of England

Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and razor sharp. Mitchell – a funny man and a skilled historian – tells stories that are interesting and fun. His rants alone are worth the price of the book. And amid all the jokes and delightful nonsense, Mitchell sneaks in a serious message about English identity. Here is Horrible Histories for grownups – stripped of their finery, devoid of reverence, UNRULY’s monarchs emerge as mortals with ordinary flaws. I learnt a lot and laughed a lot, and people who have never before picked up a history book will read and enjoy this one. That’s an accomplishment

Chatty, irreverent and liberally sprinkled with gags and opinions. Horrible Histories with added swearing.

I can’t recommend this book enough. Very funny and interesting, it is above all a proper work of history