History– as told by inconsequential bystanders

Comedian Adrian Bliss has signed a book deal to write The Greatest Nobodies Of History – a retelling of humanity’s greatest moments, as told by some of its seemingly inconsequential bystander.

Publishers Century, will release the title on August 28, with commissioning editor Callum Crute saying: he was ‘over the moon’ to be releasing it.

He added: ‘Adrian is one of the most exciting and innovative voices to come up in recent years, and his book delivers everything you would expect from him: Hilarious, informative, and completely surreal – as if the Monty Python crew had written your history textbook. 

‘I can’t wait for readers to be introduced to their new favourite, if most irreverent, historian’.

Bliss is known for his comedy sketches online, where he has amassed more than 15 million followers and last year brought a collection of his historical sketches to the Edinburgh Fringe under the title Inside Everyone

He said: ‘I have had so much fun exploring history’s side characters and telling their stories, and I am excited for readers to discover them too. If nothing else, it was worth it simply to spend three weeks in the head of Leonardo da Vinci’s ferret, and saying it was work.’

Bliss’s agent – Florcene Dodd at WME – added: ‘It’s been truly wonderful to watch Adrian’s creative brilliance transfer to the page. The chapters he has crafted are in equal parts laugh-out-loud funny, fascinating, and completely off-the-wall. 

‘Callum has been the perfect partner to help bring his vision to life. We can’t wait for you to meet history’s forgotten heroes.’

News of his publishing deal comes just two days after it was revealed that another online comedy content creator, Daniel Foxx, also has a book coming out this summer. 

Blurb for The Greatest Nobodies Of History reads: ‘The lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Henry VIII and Queen Victoria fill bookshelves and fascinate scholars all over the world. But little attention is given to the ferret who posed for the Renaissance master, the servant who oversaw the Tudor’s toilet time, or the famous horse who thrilled the miserable old monarch.

‘These supporting cast members have been waiting in the wings for too long, and Adrian Bliss thinks it’s high time they join their glory-hogging contemporaries in the spotlight. Fortunately, - thanks to some recently discovered ancient complaint letters, court transcripts and memoirs in bottles - now they can.

‘Equal parts fascinating and hilarious, The Greatest Nobodies Of History is a surreal love letter to life’s forgotten heroes featuring hitherto undocumented accounts from Ancient Greece to the frontlines of the Great Emu War.

‘All that follows really happened, and some of it could even be true…;

The book is available to order from Amazon, priced £17.47 in hardback, £9.99 in Kindle or £7.99 as an audiobook. Or from Bookshop.org, below, which supports independent local retailers.

Published: 28 Mar 2024