EX LIBRIS ; "1066 AND ALL THAT" ZANY HUMOUR

Only four shillings ( 40 Cents) as the cover shows , but it was the best four bob I ever spent. First published in 1930, "1066 And All That"in this Penguin Edition of 1960 came thundering out of my pre-history and reduced me to a helpless, incapacitated state. Helpless with gales of scarcely suppressed laughter and eyes blinded by the tears of laughter.


I was quaking so much in my efforts to stop laughing out loud, that fellow passengers on the early Saturday afternoon train from Town Hall to Lidcombe were glaring at this 20 yrs old Bank officer with intense disapproval. The central compartment of the single deck electric train could not handle unrestrainable mirth! I had to slip the book back into its brown paper bag and strive to regain my composure. I have re-read the book several times - always with the same result. I cannot guarantee that it will work for every reader of this Blog. For those unaffected, please look carefully in the mirror and commiserate with yourself. Perhaps a useful prior step would be to check your pulse looking for signs of life!
Here are a few excerpts to lighten you day:


Chapter 16
THE AGE OF PIETY
The Chapters between William I (1066) and the Tudors (Henry VIII, etc.) are always called the 
M iddle Ages , on account of their coming at the beginning; this was also The Age of Piety , since Religious fervor was then at its height, people being (1) burnt alive with faggots(The Steak), (2) bricked up in the walls of Convents (Religious Foundations), and (3) tortured in dungeons (The Confessional).


All this was not only pious but a Good Thing, as many of the people who were burnt, bricked, tortured, etc., became quite otherworldly.


Nowadays people are not so pious, even sinners being denied the benefits of fervent Religion.


Chapter 31 
THE MONASTERIES
One of the strongest things about Henry VIII did was about the Monasteries. It was pointed out to him that no-one in the monasteries was married, as the monks all thought it was still the Middle Ages. So Henry, who, of course, considered marrying a Good Thing, told Cromwell to pass a very strong Act saying that the Middle Ages were all over and the monasteries were all to be dissolved. This was called the Disillusion of the Monasteries




If you recognise some of your own exam answers in the above, it is too late to claim breach of copyright! 


Go and get your own copy and throw all your anti-depressants in the garbage!