Book description
A hilarious, myth-busting romp through historyGallipoli: birth of a
nation? BUSTED! The brontosaurus: greatest dino? BUSTED! Titanic:
biggest movie ever? BUSTED! Pirates: lawless rebels roaming the high
seas? BUSTED! These and many other historical myths have taken root in
our collective brains as fact, but according to journalist Mark Juddery,
they are all seriously overrated. The brontosaurus ISN'T one of the
greatest dinosaurs ever to roam the planet -- in fact, it never even
existed. Titanic is NOT the biggest box-office film ever made. (Err,
second-biggest? Nope, try sixth.) And as for Gallipoli and pirates -
don't make Mark laugh. And don't even get him started on Star Trek,
cockroaches, the sixties, the Wall Street Crash, Google . . . It's time
to put things into perspective -- and bust some historical myths -- with
BUSTED!, a lighthearted look at the fifty most overrated things in
history -- and the perfect stocking stuffer this Christmas. Some BUSTED!
trivia: * The Woodstock Pop Festival killed more people than the Great
Fire of London. * The healthy qualities of carrots have been greatly
exaggerated by a top-secret British military hoax. * During the reign of
King Charles I, notable citizens lived in fear of receiving knighthoods.
* Doctors used to prescribe tobacco as a cure for cancer and bad breath.
* During the Golden Age of Piracy, most of the 'fierce, terrifying'
pirates were sensitive, well-behaved guys with a decent health plan. *
You're twice as likely to be struck by lightning as to be killed by a
shark. http://50-most-overrated. blogspot. com/ Mark Juddery is a
Canberra-based writer and journalist whose features appear in The Sydney
Morning Herald, The Australian and everything in between, including a
popular weekly column in The Canberra Times. He has also written plays,
screenplays and three published books. Like any sensible person, his
great loves include music, film, history and trivia. Mark has run three
ultra-marathons, has directed and appeared in his own short comedy plays
around the world, can give a detailed synopsis of any Doctor Who story,
actually owns copies of most Velvet Underground albums, and occasionally
tries to learn the mandolin (though it's best you don't ask about that).
