Member Reviews

I got an ARC of this book.

I just didn't love it. It felt so long. There were some good jokes. The ending joke was pretty wonderful. I just had to keep forcing myself to read. I think this would work better as an audiobook for me, but it felt like Cunk-lite instead of full on Cunk.

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This is hilarious look at fake history and can be considered a mcokumentary. it is fun and not serious look. I truly think as an audiobook this would be 5 stars because the delivery is what makes Cunk so funny.

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Live laugh love Cunk

If only we all saw the world through Philomena’s eyes!! The world would be a much better place

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I love Cunk, it makes me crazy, but maybe I'll fail the book. The visual version of Philomena is much better, it attracts and involves more. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishing house for giving me this book, in exchange of an honest opinion.

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Note: I received a free unpublished proof of this book, for a limited time, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

This is not really a history book, but it is a satirical history book, so I think its target audience will be people who genuinely enjoy history books.

If you aren’t familiar with Diane Morgan’s character Philomena Cunk, whom she portrays in a number of live-action sketches you can find on YouTube, I recommend you go and watch at least one of them right now. Playing a character who acts very professional but doesn’t seem to know anything at all, her performance is a wonderful parody of BBC documentarians and the like who act as if their topic is more important than it actually is and as if they know way more about it than they actually do.

This book is very much in the same vein. While it’s “written” by Morgan’s character, I am honestly not sure if the actual text was written by Morgan herself or a team. Regardless, the book mostly nails her flavor of humor on the head.

That said, I’m only giving this one two stars because, while the book will appeal to fans of Morgan’s comedy, her general “bit” does not translate super well to book form. Given that the original Philomena Cunk sketches are poking fun at documentaries and docu-series, and that the humor largely hinges on Morgan’s tone, facial expressions, and communication style, some crucial element of her character is lost in the transition to print.

The jokes in the book are actually somewhat funny, despite seeming a little dry on paper. I think it would have been nice if Morgan or her writers tried to skewer a few more tropes unique to history books than the typical tropes in documentaries, but the concept still works as a book. There were a couple of bits here and there that seemed a bit insensitive to other cultures (something about China that seemed a bit off-color and referring to Indigenous people with a term that I believe is considered offensive), but other than I didn’t feel the comedy crossed any lines into offensive territory. For instance, there were, refreshingly, no jokes about pronouns, despite that being the one (1) joke that a ton of more conservative comedians like to tell again and again.

Overall, I felt this book was alright if you like Diane Morgan and her character, but it doesn’t really live up to her live-action skits. If people are just looking for a funny take on history but are unfamiliar with Morgan’s work, some of it will probably go over their heads or not “land” the same way.

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For fans of Philomena Cunk, this book is exactly what one expects: tongue-in-cheek anti-history with a sprinkle of social commentary. It's a fun read—for a while. The length really works against this book, as the quippy twists on history have short-lived punch lines requiring a constant barrage of them. The book is jokes piled on top of each other in hopes that the good ones will stick and we'll forget about the rest. There are good bits and, in all fairness, very few of the jokes miss. Unfortunately, they don't have time to breathe, and the reader ends up feeling like they've been force-fed the Sparknotes version of a comedian's set.

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This book was a hoot! For reference, I have not seen the show. I have heard about it, but not sat down and watched it. That said, this is a very easy book to start and read and enjoy without seeing the show. There's enough snark, satire, sarcasm and wit to keep you entertained for awhile. I hope there are more book to come from Philomena Cunk.

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It is hard to write a review of “The World According to Cunk: An Illustrated History of All World Events Ever” by Philomena Cunk that can accurately capture the experience, the sarcasm, the wit, and the non-stop humor that is present on every page. If you have seen Diane Morgan’s brilliant historical series on Netflix then be prepared for a written version of that experience, just without the Technotronic “Pump Up The Jam” sequences. And if you haven’t seen it, you should.

So, what do we have? According to Ms. Cunk, it’s 50,000 words, appealing to all of the people in the world, about the history of everything (although she admits it’s mostly British, American, and a bit of China thrown in). She starts with ancient man, Stonehenge and cave art, the wheel and money, and ends with the Internet, COVID, and Brexit. In between we get humorous takes on everything (well, mostly Western history) with plenty of msispellings, misunderstandings, and general nonsense, featuring characters such as Pharaoh Tooting Khamun, gospels by John, Luke, Paul and Ringo, and the famous French leader Napolean Brandy.

Those that expect to learn anything significant should look elsewhere. It helps if you know a bit about the history Ms. Cunk covers since part of the humor is her take on real people and events. Not every joke lands, but there are so many and they come at you so fast and furious that one cannot help but laugh, or at least grin. Very enjoyable.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you!

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The irreverent tone of Cunk's television specials is captured perfectly here, and what results are laugh out loud moments, interspersed with the genuine murmurs of a new fact learned.

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I love her humor, but I did find this to drag a bit. Too much reliance on misspelled or mispronounced names, not enough satirical humor. The last few chapters tried to make up for it, but it was too little too late.

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Hilarious and in your face, this delivered just like the Netflix series does! I couldn't stop laughing, definitely recommend.

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THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CUNK is the only kind of history book I can read. An enjoyable and entertaining book for the history buffs out there and the non-ones as well! I love how the author’s sense of humor is both witty and silly! And almost every sentence is crafted with a joke.

4.5 stars rounded to 5.

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

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Don't read this book if you don't already have any kind of knowledge of world history. You will be so confused, as this is a comedy book, not a history book. Not to say that you need to have a college level understanding or anything, but enough to recognize names that are misspelled for comedic effect (for example, George Ohwell, instead of George Orwell). The fact that she didn't start with the correct spelling and then changed it to an incorrect one is one of the reasons I am giving it a four star instead of a five. I totally understand why she was using the wrong names, having seen her stuff before, but still.


The book is so funny, loved it so much. If you aren't sure if this is something you would like, look up some of the author's videos on Tiktok or YouTube. She is so funny. When I saw she had written this book, I knew I wanted to read it.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free kindle book. My opinions are my own and are freely given.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! I love Diane Morgan and Philomena, but this felt a bit flat for me. Cunk is definitely more a tv personality

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Reading this made me feel nostalgic for the books that used to come out of The Daily Show and Colbert. In this (short) history of the world, Philomena Cunk brings her trademark style and ... let's say knowledge level, with the additional treat of illustrations. Not as densely illustrated as I was expecting - there were maybe a dozen throughout - but I always appreciate Philomena's point of view and vision of the world. A great gift or a quick refresher for oneself on major world events over the past few millennia.

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Philomena Cunk, the brilliant creation of comedian Diane Morgan, is here to tell you all about world history, in her own peculiar way. Both dismissive and woefully ignorant, Philomena bumbles through most major events, including Immersive Story sidebars where she asks questions like, "You are a Christian in the Colosseum: how close do you let the lion get before reappraising your relationship with Jesus?"

I laughed out loud so many times while reading this book - and I think we could all use some laughter.

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This book is exactly what I expected, which is a delightful and hilarious foray into Philomena's Cunk's unique view of world history. If you've seen her TV shows then you can practically hear her voice in your head as you're reading. In fact, I found myself wishing at a few points that I had waited for the audio book because I think that hearing her read the text is definitely the way to go with this one (I'll probably get the audio book anyways).

If you like absurd histories and want something light and fun then definitely get this as soon as its available. If you haven't read her previous book then get that one too. You won't be disappointed.

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Thank you NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing, and the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I was really excited for this one because I’m a huge fan of Philomena Cunk and watching her shows. This one was funny and I liked all of the chapters and didn’t think that anything dragged. There were some really funny moments and I could imagine her doing a show or special with the jokes and content in the book. Speaking of, though, I do think I would have enjoyed this one more as an audiobook. If you get the choice, I would go the audiobook route! Either way though, this is a funny and easy read that helps readers escape from reality for a little bit.

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I’m rather upset that I had to interrupt my doomshopping and doomscrolling to read The World According to Cunk. It totally got me out of my post election funk because it’s hilarious! Truly laugh-out-loud funny.

While based on the real world, and history, and stuff like that, Cunk has an unusual viewpoint that she is quite willing to share.

“Cavemen were just posh bears.”

“A fence is a state-of-the-art wooden forcefield.”

Writing “was an early version of data harvesting, about actual harvesting.”

The Crusades were when “Christian Europe decided that the Muslims needed help; specifically, they needed Jesus‘s love stabbed into them.“

Cunk also frequently confuses common terms to humorous effect. For example, she states Europe and Asia is the landmass collectively known as Erasure and that the corpulent ruler and initiator of the Church of England is named Henry the Ate.

The book is also very British. Despite frequent viewing of British mystery series, I still had to rely on my Kindle to define a word or two per chapter. So keep your phone handy if you are reading the hardcover version.

Overall, The World According to Cunk is a book to either love (if you have a sense of humor and love puns), or be frustrated by (especially common with stuffy non-British historians, I suppose). I fall strongly in the first group. Netflix has a Cunk series that is also a world history with less detail but more pictures. The jokes are mostly new in this book so fans of the series will most likely love the book too. 5 stars!

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with an advanced review copy.

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I have loved watching Philomena Cunk for such a long time so I was very excited to read this and learn all about the world's history via Cunk. Such a funny read overall.

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