To those who know Al Murray as his Pub Landlord alter ego, The Last 100 Years And All That might come as something of a surprise. Yet Murray studied Modern History at Oxford in his pre-Pub Landlord days, and his passion for the past means that this is more than just a celebrity stocking filler.
The title of the book is a nod to the 1930 classic 1066 And All That, and just as that book managed to balance irreverent humour with genuine historical insight Murray also carries off that delicate balancing act. Billed as a “whistle-stop tour of Britain since 1914”, the book actually concludes in 1999, while its scope spans the globe and reaches all the way to the Moon.