Whilst this book wasn’t everything I was expecting (and maybe hoping) I can still appreciate that it is really well written with a good plot. I didn’t instantly take to some characters but I think that is partially because I had different expectations going into the book.

I am a massive fan of Miles Jupp, I think he’s an amazing raconteur, and was so pleased to receive an ARC of History to read.

The story follows Clive, a History teacher at a minor public school. He is very much put up on by his colleagues. He’s one of those of chaps who can’t seem to catch a break. The situations he finds himself in, often completely through his own fault were initially hilarious. As it becomes clear his life is fast unravelling, it seemed a lot less funny. He really did feel like a man on the edge….

I didn’t read the book in one go because I grew quite about Clive’s predicament. I had a horrible feeling it was going to end horribly. At the time I was reading it had a lot going on at work and home and really just wanted to keep it light. It might have felt a different book to me if I’d read at a different time when perhaps there weren’t so many similarities with Clive’s.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Headline, for making this book available to me for a fair and honest review.

This was a lovely book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It was gentle, I'm sure very much on purpose as it mirrored the life and personality of the main character. Very accurately portrayed and funny in so many places. A true reflection of a slightly lost not quite middle aged man that I'm sure many could relate to.

Biting, Comi-Tragic Satire…
A biting, comi-tragic satire of a man losing control of his life, a mid life crisis if you like. Poor Clive Hapgood endures life, he bounces from one semi disaster to another as his life slowly unravels in front of those around him. A dryly witty tale, often sensitively and empathetically told, of a man on the brink of disaster and how just that one straw can break the camels back.

I love Miles Jupp’s intelligent sense of humour and social commentary so I was looking forward to reading his debut novel. However, much as I dislike being negative in reviews, I can’t avoid it as I was left very disappointed. History had moments of wry humour and clever set pieces, but for the most part I found it miserable, uninteresting and at times bordering on cringey. I almost dnf’ed it, something I very rarely do.
I imagine it may appeal to teachers especially public school teachers and ex-students as there would be many scenarios that are all too familiar to them, but for me it’s a big thumbs-down. Sorry Mr Jupp, I’m sure it’s me, not you.

I enjoyed some elements of this novel, but not others. I find Miles Jupp hilarious on television - his Would I Lie To You story where he was on safari and spent a long time conversing with a hippo, thinking it was his wife, is a particular favourite of mine. This was one of those situations where the novel’s humour was coming from the central character’s quirks and awkwardness. This is funny to a point, but can become cringeworthy after a while. There were times I felt sad for Clive, and couldn’t laugh at him.. It seemed interesting to me that some reviews mention humour coming from the character’s lack of self-awareness. I wondered how close Clive’s foibles we’re to Jupp’s own character.

Clive is a history teacher at a public school no one has heard of. Our story is mainly made up of Clive’s day to day life events, and I felt there wasn’t enough structure to the story. Unfortunately, misfortune seems to follow him around in both his work and personal life. He’s in a middle phase of life where younger men are being promoted above him despite having no experience. Jupp has a great eye for the petty irritants of a working life where you’re jaded and fed up of being under appreciated, especially when managers know less than you do. His marriage is no longer working either and some of that is his own fault. I enjoyed the holiday to France which was reminiscent of David Nichols’ novel Us. I wasn’t surprised by the novel and the ending wasn’t very uplifting. Great characterisation, but some predictable set pieces.

An enjoyable read for teachers and I have recommended to other staff members, we can all recognise these teachers and that school environment that only makes things worse!

I love Miles Jupp's comedy and came to this book with very high expectations - thanks to NetGalley and Headline for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story is about Clive Hapgood, a History teacher in a small private school. He is having a tough time both at school and in his family life, so a trip to France at half term looks to be the answer to all his problems. However, an incident at school refuses to be forgotten and Clive's life starts to unravel.

The blurb and suggested a kind of humorous and satirical public school story in the vein of Evelyn Waugh's 'Decline and Fall'. It started promisingly in this style - I loved the slightly louche school chaplain and the characterisation of the teachers and enjoyed the humorous set-pieces at the beginning of the novel. As a teacher in exactly the kind of school Jupp is writing about, I felt that there was a certain truth in some of the characters and situations in the novel. Bits of it are really very funny indeed and I settled in to enjoy the comic story.

However, the novel soon shifts to Clive's family situation - his spiky wife and two daughters. While there were some relatable and funny bits during the trip to France (the hypermarche trips, the paddling pool, the endless bread and cheese...), this is really where the tragedy of the story lies. His marriage is difficult, although I could never really decide whether that was due to Clive's ineptness (as his wife suggested) or the wife's quite unpleasant nature. It's fair to say that I didn't warm to Helen, the wife, even as I recognised that she was slightly long-suffering, and this felt wrong in the context of the novel.

I can't even talk about the ending. It wasn't at all what I expected or hoped for and felt very abrupt.

Overall, this was a mixed bag for me. Lots of it I loved and I did enjoy reading it, hence the 3.5 stars (rounded to 4). However, it felt a bit uneven and ultimately unclear whether it was a comic novel or something much more bleak. The comic bits were really very funny and the school bits engaging, plus the parenting situations relatable - I just wish Jupp had kept his focus on these elements more.

History follows history teacher Clive as his he tries to navigate through a job he's not entirely satisfied in and to keep his marriage from teetering over the brink.

I read this because I enjoy Miles Jupp's work as a comedian. It was entertaining enough and I enjoyed Jupp's observational insights into the working life. I'm not a teacher but we can all recognise colleagues, past or present in the staff at Clive's school. I did, perhaps mistakenly, expect this to be funnier than it was, though the holiday in France was the standout of the novel for me in this regard. In the end, the book didn't quite land for me, I found it lacking in any real structure as the first part of it dragged a little and then the ending was just a little disappointing.

Clive Hapgood is a history teacher in a minor public school. The book is really a character study of Clive, a decent, well-meaning but unhappy and rather hapless man on whom life’s difficulties keep piling. The plot is largely a series of his frustrations, embarrassments and humiliations as things in his professional and family life keep going wrong.

This was an enjoyable read by Miles Jupp. It told the story of a teacher at a boarding school who realises that being a teacher, and life more widely, wasn't quite working out as he had hoped. This is an easy, quick read, one that grabs your attention due to the author but not one that stays on your mind or makes you want to discuss in length with others.

The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

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Clive is “a man on the edge” working in a third rate public school that consumes all his time and a marriage that has seen more passion filled days.
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So, this is a lighthearted comedic tale of middle England woahs. I was asking myself who this book is aimed at and I think it might be the people who chuckle at Radio 4 comedy shows. I have to admit I might lean into that demographic very occasionally.
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Jupp’s ability to write a comedic set piece is excellent. The frustration of buying paper towels in a Spar has honestly never been funnier. These scenes had me skipping through the novel nicely.
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On the downside the tweeness of the novel was a buzzing annoyance I couldn’t quite shake. There’s an entire scene about cricket that I could barely bring myself to care about. It’s just a personal taste thing. I’m sure cricket fans will love it.
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Overall I enjoyed this as a lighthearted character study. I’ve been reading a lot of emotional novels recently so it was nice to mix in some lighthearted comedic writing. [MILD SPOILER] The very last beat of the novel, therefore, left me a bit puzzled. I got the impression that we were meant to think Clive was a hero for that final decision he made but I thought it was pretty horrible and didn’t fit at all the character I’d just got to know.

I like Miles Jupp esp as Archie the inventor from Balamory. I was interested when i saw that that he had written a fiction book, having high hopes but fearing that he couldnt match the heady success of Richard Osman with his Thursday Club Murders. The premise of Hostory is a little suburban, Clive Hapgood as a history teacher will never set the world on fire, Teaching in a private school in Wiltshire, both he and his wife had felt that this move to the countryside and a private school was the answer to their problems. Clive is feeling disalusioned and feels that the world is against him, you can only cringe at the embarrassing and humiliating things that happen to him at school, the scrapes that he gets himself into, are all of his own doing.

His wife has little sympathy for him, and his domestic life is on the same track as his professional life. The book has some funny moments, and whilst you feel sorry for Clive you hope that he can pull his life round. This book wont set the world on fire, and i suspect it will sell better in paperback as i think the price tag is too high and priced on the basis of Miles Jupps name.

I was pleased to read a book written by one of my favourite comedians and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed reading about the exploits of the hero, Clive Hapgood. He is decent and well meaning but things never quite go as planned for him.

The book details in a witty and well written manner of all his exploits and how they never quite turn out as expected.

It was well done and I enjoyed it but it will not live too long in the memory.

This was a harder going read than expected about a history teacher at a private school who is struggling both in his professional and personal life. Clive has been teaching a number of years now, initially at a state school but struggling financially he moved to a private school a number of years back but now he is disenchanted with work and his frustration is spilling over into home life causing tension in his marriage. I expected this to be a lighter hearted read, it is very perceptive in terms of Clive’s gradual decline and there was some wry humour but it lacked the laugh out loud moments that would have lifted it from the overall negative mental mindset Clive possessed.

A good book (though slightly overlong and could have done with some editing I felt to make it shorter and tighter story wise).
It is hard at time as the main character Clive you feel both sympathy for and yet at other times you just feel he is making his own bed and needs to lie in it.
I think ta times it is hard to feel sympathy for him which ends up being a problem as you just feel he is hapless and a weak character who gets walked all over by others.
Overall a good read but overlong and at times you stop having sympathy for the main character which makes it at times harder to read.

Clive Hopgood teaches at a private school and is not happy with his life, either at the school or at home with his wife and two children.

Miles Jupp uses his comedic talent to good use throughout, although some of set pieces you can see coming. The family holiday to France is a particularly entertaining part of the novel.

It would make for a good TV adaptation especially given some of the comedic set pieces.

As for the main character Clive at times you feel empathy for him and other times you think he reaps what he sows!

In academic terms a sound effort with some room for improvement. C-

Clive Hapgood, history teacher.

Life's not going very well. The private boys' school is a nightmare, no thanks to the ghastly headteacher. Home life not great either, thanks to school.

Clive needs a holiday.....and of course that doesn't end well either

I like Miles Jupp’s work as a comedian very much, but I didn’t enjoy History nearly as much as I expected to. This is partly because it isn’t what I expected, but I think the book does have weaknesses, too.

Clive Hapgood is a history teacher in a minor public school. The book is really a character study of Clive, a decent, well-meaning but unhappy and rather hapless man on whom life’s difficulties keep piling. The plot is largely a series of his frustrations, embarrassments and humiliations as things in his professional and family life keep going wrong.

In some ways it’s decently done; Jupp writes well and has a penetrating eye for Clive’s lack of self-awareness, the petty annoyances of life, the sort of vacuous blether many of us have to put up with from managers with little experience of the job people actually do and the way in which a seemingly sound marriage can go wrong. The thing is, I don’t find awkwardness and embarrassment funny, so the book was actually rather a depressing read for me. By half way I was hoping for some sort of a change and possible beginning of redemption, but it’s more of the same almost throughout. For me, this was a flawed structure and I struggled and eventually skimmed my way through the second half.

I’m sorry to say this of an author whom I like very much as a comedian, but I can’t recommend History. It has its merits and others may enjoy it but I’m afraid I didn’t.

(My thanks to Headline for an ARC via NetGalley.)

This debut novel by the comedian Miles Jupp - a familiar face/voice from various comedy panel shows - is all about the much put-upon history teacher Clive Hapgood. It's set in the late 1990s, in an era just before widespread mobile phones and internet. Clive teaches at a private boarding school for boys in a small, leafy town somewhere between Newbury and Swindon. Despite being apparently more desirable than teaching in an underfunded state school, the nature of the school means evenings and weekends are consumed by on-site duties, which Clive is ineffective at declining. This leads to increasing conflict with his wife and two daughters. Clive is profoundly unhappy, but seems unable to find a realistic way out of his difficulties, and instead digs himself further and further into trouble.

I found Clive a sympathetic character - maybe more sympathetic than the author intended him to be, or than the other characters seemed to find him. He was someone who did his best and helped out others, and the gripes and frustrations he raised throughout the book seemed entirely reasonable. He didn't always deal with his frustrations in the most sensible way, but likewise he didn't do anything that a reasonable person might not - no one is saint who remains in perfect emotional control all the time. I was surprised by how little slack he was cut by those who knew him, particularly is his wife, who seemed to simultaneously want him to get promoted and be more 'successful' whilst resenting the time he spent at work trying to do so.

The humour is there throughout, as you'd expect in a book by someone primarily known as a comedian. But it is of the uncomfortable, wince-inducing kind, so if that's not your cup of tea you might not enjoy the read. I fall somewhere in between - at times I felt the humour outweighed the cringe, and other times I just wanted to stop reading as the hapless Mr Hapgood suffered yet another indignity.

Underlying the story are some more serious themes, about how you define contentment in life and what you should tolerate, and about the role of private education in society. One of Clive's main problems was his rising disillusion with - and contempt of - the very system in which he worked (and had been educated himself). I personally agreed with his views, although others won't - this is a subject that always divides people. I don't know much about private education and this probably plays to the worst of my prejudices about it. I think it's safe to say it's a skewed view for the purposes of the novel and I wouldn't want to assume it was typical or true of every fee-paying school. In fact, I'm certain it wouldn't be - what I don't know is what proportion it would be. Certainly the sense of entitlement that so frustrates Clive is something I have seen in privately educated people - but whether that is a reason to hate the whole concept, or rather a condemnation of the lack of self-esteem instilled by the state sector, is harder to say.

Overall it's a readable story and if you enjoy slightly cringy humour and 'comedy of errors' style set-ups you'll like it. I would read another by Jupp if the premise sounded interesting.

This was slightly different to my usual style of books, most likely because it was written from the male point of view, but I really enjoyed the story. The characters were realistic (some were likeable and some were purposefully not at all likeable!) and Miles Jupp was skillful in the way he navigated the story of their lives and how humdrum they can become. I was pleased to see the main character grow in strength and be brave at the end. It was a good read.