Publisher's Synopsis
The Im Sorry I Haven't a Clue team of Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor, in the company of their esteemed chairman Humphrey Lyttelton, have been recording their BBC radio show around the UK for longer than any of them can remember ... thats about week or twenty minutes in the case of Barry Cryer. At each venue Humph would present a short history of the location, written by Iain Pattinson, to the mutual delight of the audience, the team and their delightful scorer Samantha (who somehow always found time for a rewarding poke in the areas backstreets). We are privileged to present, in gazetteer form, the very best of Humphs local histories from Radio 4s multi award-winning antidote to panel games. As accurate as Wikipedia and as comprehensive as Readers Digest, this unique guide tells you everything you never knew you wouldnt ever need to know about the background and inhabitants of Britains most prominent towns and cities. The intelligent reader will waste no time in adding it to their collection. Bristol It was from Bristol in 1497 that John Cabot set off to find a new route to the Spice Islands by sailing north-west. He instead discovered a strange, hostile world which he named Newfoundland, until the natives explained that they actually called it Swansea. Nottingham Its well documented in official records that the citys original name was Snottingham or home of Snotts, but when the Normans came, they couldnt pronounce the initial letter S, so decreed the town be called Nottingham or the home of Notts. Its easy to understand why this change was resisted so fiercely by the people of Scunthorpe. Brighton A settlement is first recorded in Brighton as long as ago as 3000BC, when Celtic Druids practised their ancient worship of oaks, mistletoe and virgins, and indeed, oaks and mistletoe are still plentiful in Brighton.
