Anniversaries in 2015: 1066 and All That.
Jonathan Wolstenholme
You may be thinking, as you read this title, ‘what’s he on about? Why would anyone write an article about the 949 th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings?
That's not a real anniversary!!’. Well you’d be right to do so.
Of course, the real anniversary is the 85 th Anniversary of the publication of
the book by that same title. W C Sellar
and R J Yeatman published their
unique, timeless classic in 1930, and it
has remained loved ever since. The
title page reads ‘1066 and All That: A
Memorable History of England,
comprising all the parts you can
remember, including 103 Good
Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine
Dates’. These two dates include the
title date itself, 1066, which was the
year of ‘ The Battle of Hastings, and
was when William I (1066) conquered
England at the Battle of Senelac ( Ten
Sixty-six)’. We are told that ‘The Norman Conquest was a Good Thing, as from Peter Svinhufvud
this time onwards England stopped being conquered and thus was able to become
top nation.’ This is one of the many examples in the book of the authors’ poking
fun at the previously prevalent Whig view of history, which presents the past as
an inevitable progression towards even greater liberty and enlightenment.
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