Selfish Whining Monkeys

by Rod Liddle

With a sharp eye for the magnificently absurd, Rod Liddle sets light to modern-day Britain.


‘One of Britain’s funniest, most daring columnists. If he weren’t so offensive you’d almost call him a national treasure’ Mail on Sunday


‘I, and my generation, seem feckless and irresponsible, endlessly selfish, whining, avaricious, self-deluding, self-obsessed, spoiled and corrupt and ill.’


What is it that has transformed the British who in living memory were admired for their unassuming, stiff-upper-lipped capacity for `muddling through' into the feckless,
obese, self-deluding, avaricious and self-obsessed whingers we have become? Savagely funny and relentlessly contrary, yet with a poignant sense of all that we have lost, Rod Liddle mercilessly exposes the absurdity, cant and humbuggery of the way we live now.

Genres: Politics, Society

237 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

Reviews

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was unsure whether to give this book 2 stars or 4. One moment Liddle infuriates you with his views (and language which is often crude) and the next you find yourself strongly agreeing with him. He is a sort of left wing Jeremy Clarkson and this book is basically the rant of an angry man, but it is perceptive, it is funny, it is written with feeling. Yes, he is left wing but a sort of old fashioned left wing and he repeatedly lays into the modern metropolitan liberal lefties and slays many of their sacred cows.

[Lee Ramsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pointless polemic written by a white male baby boomer. I struggled for about an hour to make sense of the rambling style, and ended up flicking to the end of the book to see if there was ever going to be a point. It seemed to be this: These days, things might be better for women, homosexuals, transexuals, and ethnic minorities, but for "us" they're a lot worse. "Us" is the minority of British people who are white heterosexual males. Thank you Captain Obvious, we (those of us excluded from your group "us") don't have a problem with that.

[Chris Lilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I disagreed with Mr. Liddle most of the time. He is ranting and intemperate. However, the disagreements he engenders are useful, they made me examine the issues I disagreed on. He also writes with brio and passion. Much more than the groaning reactionary whines of Littlejohn and Clarkson, much more reflective and self-critical, much better argued and better written. Didn't want to like this as much as I did, but hey, he did it well...

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

a fairly long rant. At times quite entertaining but ultimately a little short on real depth. I don't think he's aiming for a detailed description of what ails society and he certainly offers few suggestions for change. it's a bit like a series of journalistic articles that have been stretched out to make a book. Witty but a bit shallow.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

AKA Selfish Whining Monkeys...Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It triggered so many memories & I found something to argue with and/or think about on nearly every page. A good, lively, entertaining, provocative read.

[Ramon Battershall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreary self-indulgent tosh by a vaguely irritating has-been better known for his racism than any real contribution to intellectual debate. Almost fatally boring, this rambling and self-obsessed tosh rivals even Stephen Fry in it's depiction of an unattractive man caught between self-loathing and regard. On the rare occasions racist Rod remembers he's not supposed to be talking about himself and his equally boring and racist parents, he vaguely bangs on about how things were better in the good old days because people had less, but were more racist and women knew their place. This is usually followed by a panicked rebuttal of what he just said and a stream of four letter words to show he's a real man and was sort of vaguely working classish about 50 years ago.

I have a strong feeling that nobody giving it 5 stars even read it. To be honest, I gave up half way through after trying to work my way through another clunky, interminably long paragraph that happened to be paradoxically both impossibly pretentious and crude and and ignorant. Any positive review is really a vote for racism; I find it impossible to believe anyone actually enjoyed this dreary bilge, it's like being stuck with the pub bore. No, scratch that, it IS being stuck with the pub bore: a bitter, moaning, obese tedious old has-been desperate to make everyone as unhappy as he is.

[Simon Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Conservative voting atheist who supports Leeds United I probably shouldn't have enjoyed this book as much as I did! Although I disagree with a lot of the views expresses it is a great read. One which had me laughing out loud more than once.