This is a quirky book. It has facts about Britain. It is obviously well researched. It is the sort of book that you would dip in and out of

The Notorious Guide to Britain is a travel book nothing like I've read before. I love how it blends really interesting history facts with practical travel information. I loved learning about a couple of places I've already been to and can't wait to plan a trip using this as a guide knowing all this cool information. I'd recommend this book to everyone who loves travelling and history and the people who read the plaques at museums rather than rushing through!

Great for anyone who, like me, loves to have strange and wonderful stories to tell about the people and places around them. Fabulous snippets to captivate the reader, and encourage exploration.

This book is full of interesting and useful information and it is packed full of insights in to Britain. If you are planning a trip to Britain I recommend this book as a guide. Well organized and written in a way that engages the reader. Thank you for the opportunity to read & Review.

I've had this book on the go for a couple of months now, and it's ideal for dipping in and out if, learning things you never thought you wanted or needed to know! my only criticism is that the facts and information can be a bit too detailed, making it a bit overwhelming

A detailed and sometimes fascinating tour around Britain from a book that seems to struggle with whether to identify itself as a travel guide or a quirky history book.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with mixing the two, but with travel guide format and organization it isn’t particularly readable, despite many of the entries being intended more for that purpose than as something one might consult on a vacation.

I like the idea behind this, but the mishmash of phone book style entries mixed with little paragraphs of trivia and history lessons makes it difficult to, well, figure out exactly what to do with this.

Do I take it on my next trip to Britain to look up destinations? Or do I read it casually to educate myself on the included historical factoids?

Either is useful, but I’m not sure the book was wise to attempt both, at least from an organizational standpoint.

This was fun to read through but probably not the best choice for planning your next trip to the British Isles.

I quite enjoyed this book. The details about the personalities and places were second to none! At times I felt almost too much information was given. It could have been a bit more light heartening in that case.

Princess Fuzzypants here: This book was never intended to be a definitive compendium of notorious deeds and the places where they were perpetrated. Rather it is an interesting hodgepodge of fact and fictional events, lumped into various groupings. It is filled with murder and mystery and all sorts of other good things. In other words, it is a romp through some of the seedier and steamier places and events.

It covers the big ones like Jack The Ripper and The Yorkshire Ripper and an assortment of other serial killers. But it is not all death and disaster. There are some juicy scandals and then some, in comparison, mundane places of the rich and famous. Some of the places have blue plaques. Some have been torn down and rebuilt as something else. Since it tends to bop all over the island, it would not be useful as a guide book for travelling. But it could be a good book for entertainment whilst travelling. Four purrs and two paws up.

A really interesting read about Britain, really well written with lots of information but not in an overwhelming way. I enjoyed being able to dip in and out of this book at my leisure and learning new things about our country.

Well, this is a book that wilfully demands it just rest in the smallest room for a little browse here and there – at least, that is the only impression to have from the first few pages, which marry the exact place where ASDA, Boots and Biba came about with Borley Rectory, the most haunted of haunted locations, according to its reputation.

I'm normally one to give the highest of grades to non-fiction books only if they go above and beyond, but the fact our author looked up the day of the week for every solitary day and date in these copious pages – well, it helped nothing. So the first ever Boy Scout camp was held on a Thursday? The most trivial of trivia, I'm sure you agree. And yet, here is Amy Johnson being used to cut the ribbon at the first Butlin's. If you don't learn something here you are the author and I claim my five pounds.

This is a right mish-mash of British happenings, from when this shop was founded and where what dodgy old bloke went cottaging (look it up) to where this film was made and how this scandal came about. It definitely is for consumption in small doses – although that's thwarted at times by, in my opinion, too much on the Profumo affair. Indeed, some odd decisions do seem to pad this out, from the half-hearted look at film locations (one Bond film only?!) to the lengthy quote for no reason from the "Four Weddings and a Funeral" script. You could also charge this is very London-centric, but that's probably just as much as British history itself is by default London-centric. However, "Alfie" is here and not "Get Carter", for just one example.

Treat this kindly, though – ie ration it well – and you see how it has treated you kindly. It's the first trivia book I know of to have the intention of getting you off the loo and going to all the locations, so we get postcodes and current circumstances for much of the places, so John Lennon fans can go and see where both his parents and he got married, and know in advance it's no registry office any longer. It certainly taught me things, and yet I felt it a little too harum-scarum in choosing its wealth of subjects. There is definitely scope with the Bond films and the darker sections on notable deaths (the Acid Bath Murders, f'instance) for a sequel. Luckily for all concerned this is decent enough to demand that sister volume.

This book lives up to its blurb, and is an interesting collection of places in Britain, associated with incidents that are quirky, interesting, famous or just simply notorious. Not every place recounted is associated with a celebrity, though some are.Nearly all of them are absolutely fascinating ( there were some that recounted places where terrible murders took place that I didn't like reading of). He has a set of associated places, that give you a very well-written account of the entire Profumo affair, and how it ended up unravelling completely..inadvertently. I found this book a very comforting and vicarious read, given that it's going to take a while for international travel to normalise fully. Donnelley's writing of these places is very evocative of time, apart from place, and makes you want to visit a lot of these places. Sadly, though, a lot of the entries of some of the most compelling places end with the line "this has now been turned into luxury apartments". Stop paving paradise and putting up parking lots, builders!

This book is quirky with facts based around the country in different categories , some well known and other little known ones. feels like a socking filler.

I was fascinated by the book's title and description and eager to learn more about British history, but like many other reviewers, I was disappointed in it.
I had the impression that I was reading a Wikipedia page of facts, and some of them made it quite difficult to identify who was who due to the abundance of dates, places, and irrelevant information. I ended up skipping a few entries that dragged on and to be fair, there were some that held my interest but overall, this wasn't the book for me.

I found this to be what I would call a coffee table book as it is not one that you just read but more a dip into at odd times. I did know some of the stories as there has been other books published with exactly the same theme and I have read those. Having said that I did find some interesting facts out that I had not seen before., plus there was more up to date places and characters written about than previous older books.
I am not sure that all the facts come under the title notorious but simply informative and often historical .

This is quite a fun guide to Britain. As an American, I learned so much about places I had read about, but had no real idea of their history. Very enjoyable. Setup alphabetically.

Thank you to Mardle Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The Notorious Guide to Britain is a very well written and informative book. I found it to be very interesting and liked that I could dip in and out of it

A fascinating compendium of a variety of popular and arcane goings on in Great Britain over the past couple of hundred years. Great to have on hand while touring or to read in snippets while waiting. Useful and fun!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Ad Lib Publishers/Mardle Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

The Notorious Guide to Britain is an unique guidebook perfect for reader who appreciates unusual informations with quirky way.

Although this book is different and fun to read but some details is over description expecially with all dates and address. The premise is really interesting but the presentation kinda lost for me. This book make me wanna learn more about Britain.

Thank you Netgalley and Mardle Books from Ad Lib Publishers for provided me this copy. I learn something new but my thoughts are my own.

Oh what a delightful book this is, stuffed from cover to cover with all sorts of fascinating information. Not a book to read in one go, more one for dipping into chapter by chapter. Information on the famous, the infamous, historically relevant and just plain interesting.

If you know someone who loves both almost random but connected and interesting facts, this is the present to give them and to treat yourself to too.

*Received a copy review.
Lots of great information but the addresses were a bit excessive. I love unusual history.