I am not a historian. In fact, I wrote this poem in order to teach myself some history. I thought that sorting facts into verse form would concentrate my mind wonderfully. Which it did. Brought up with the iambic pentameters of Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Verses ringing in his ears, James Muirden's rhyming history is a long poem in an equally simple and jolly form. Irreverent, humorous and illustrated by David Eccles.