Phil Mason

I've read a number of this type of book; paragraph or so long reports of political strangeness, and thought many of the anecdotes would be rehashes of earlier books. Instead, almost all of the anecdotes are new to me (Kevin Rudd's earwax eating notwithstanding) and many are very funny.

My favourite story has to be the low turnout in Birmingham South for the 1979 European Parliament: by lunch the turnout was one voter, an elderly lady who thought she was voting in the Eurovision Song Contest.… (plus d'informations)

An entertaining collection of anecdotes about well-know historical figures and their secrets. Someone well-read will already be familiar with about half the material, but the rest will be new to them and often surprising. The Indian royalty and their excesses such as the one who used village boys as living bait for his tiger hunts, the eccentricities of the British Prime Ministers and the royals, unpublicized facts about artists like Michelangelo who used male models for his female nudes, and so on, along with the fairy photo hoax that took in Arthur Conan Doyle, Washington's expense account, and Andrew Jackson's penchant for duels. Even the familiar stuff offers details you may not know. Overall, an excellent read.… (plus d'informations)