Great British Losers

Everyone knows we're a nation obsessed with runners-up and near-missers, that we find failure heroic and success boring, if not downright rude. In this hilarious, fact-packed and up-to-date compendium, vintage losers such as Ethelred 'the Unready' and Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards jostle with newcomers on the failure scene like Sir Fred Goodwin, who blithely steered RBS into the distinctly unwelcoming arms of the British tax-payer. Alongside these stellar losers are many lesser-known gems of national inadequacy, such as the actor Robert Coates, who was so bad that in 1816 several audience members injured themselves laughing – during a performance of Rowe's death-filled tragedy The Fair Penitent. Great British Losers is a book for the twisted patriot that lurks inside us all. It'll make you laugh, and perhaps even cry – at least with rage. In the end, it may even make you proud to be British. Well, kind of…