Desmond Olivier Dingle's The Complete History of the Whole World

Desmond Olivier Dingle, founder and leading actor of the National Theatre of Brent, gives us the benefit of his huge and devastating knowledge by charting the history of the world in fifty-eight chapters, three prefaces and a foreword by Simon Schama

Starting, obviously, with The Creation of the Universe, and moving swiftly through The Dawn of Man, The Grandeur that was Rome and A History of the English Channel, each chapter is replete with erudition: "The Chinese Empire is one of the oldest Empires in the world and existed until recently without anyone knowing about it. Apart from the Chinese, obviously."

Each chapter also ends with helpful suggestions of 'Things to Do': eg Make a scale model of the Big Bang. Discuss Civilisation generally. Release from bondage an oppressed person of your acquaintance