Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: A Jolly Romp Through English History

A rousing good book about British Monarchs.

While I didn't start reading Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee, An Epically Short History of Our Kings and Queens by Charlie Higson until I returned home, the book shed a great deal of light on a lot of history that I experience on the Welshie Big Adventure. After three months in Great Britain, trying to remember which king and queen reigned in what order, I found this book in a bookshop in Stow-on-the-Wold that I thought might be helpful. I wish I had read it before we left for Wales.

If you are like me, you may not know much about the author Charlie Higson. A little sleuthing on the internet showed me that Higson is an actor, a comedian, an author, and a former musician. As a comedian, Higson delivered a lot of history in a lighthearted way. Perhaps more history books should be written by intelligent comedians, then the general public would be better educated.

It's pretty easy to keep track of history in the United States because we have only been around as an official country for 250 years. England, Scotland, and Wales have been writing and re-writing their history since Alfred the Great was born in 849! Even if you start at the first actual king of England, William the Conqueror, he ruled from 1066-1087, which is still several hundred years before the Pilgrims set sail for North America.

Charlie Higson knows how to make every bit of British history feel exciting. At the start of each monarch's chapter, there is a summary of the years they reigned, the years they lived, how they died, and what they are remembered for. Some rulers had successful reigns, while others made a mess of it, but Higson makes it all enjoyable to pore over.

Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee is the kind of history book that makes learning history entertaining. History lessons don't have to be dull and dry. British history is full of murders, deception, intrigue, and beheadings. Higson's book is like a good thriller, with the added benefit of it all being true.