Local Book Reviews At Yourcounty - The Little Book Of Kent

Welcome to the Yourcounty review of Andrew Tulloch's The Little Book of Kent. As always we welcome your feedback if you've read this book or have an opinion about thie review. If you'd like to submit a review of your own let us know. Our contact details are at the foot of the page.

The Little Book of Kent is a lovely tome of snippets about notable people, places and historic events of Kent. Rather than attempting to be an exhaustive collection of any of the above, Alexander Tulloch picks out the most enjoyable, humorous and quirky things about our county. It would seem harsh to call this a book of trivia as you definitely come out of it knowing more than you did before about some serious subjects, but it seems the kind of book you dip into now and again, perhaps during bathroom visits, rather than consume all in one go.

To give you a flavour of the spirit and content of The Little Book of Kent here are a few brief excerpts. It is, however, important to say that the book is comprised far more of longer passages than these small nuggets but the latter tend to be more fun and easier to remember and quote.

“An old nickname for anyone from Kent was ‘Kentish Long-Tail’. The origin of the name was the widely held belief in medieval Europe that all Englishmen had tails.”

“Henry IV (r.1399-1413)I buried in Canterbury Cathedral. The only other English monarch who is not buried in London is Stephen, the last Norman King of England (r. 1135-41). He died in Dover and Is buried in Faversham.”

“In the film The Battle of Britain (1969) the actor Christopher Plummer and his ‘wife’,played by Susannah York, have a rendezvous, which quickly develops into a bit of a tiff, in the Jackdaw Inn. This is a real pub in the village of Denton, about 9 miles south of Canterbury, and is still serving pints today.”

In short, this is a great book for learning about Kent without realising you are doing it, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who likes the kind of book you can dip into from time-to-time without needing to read it cover to cover. It would also make a splendid gift for both residents of and visitors to our garden of England.

Andy McLellan

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