Welcome to this very special episode, timed to coincide with the official launch of Charlie Higson's book of the podcast, Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History of Our Kings and Queens.

Charlie is joined by the book's illustrator, formerly known as Britain's Top Light Entertainer under his stage name Vic Reeves, the acclaimed artist Jim Moir.

The book is OUT NOW so order it here..... https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/willie-willie-harry-stee-an-epically-short-history-of-our-kings-and-queens-charlie-higson?variant=55169046708603 ..... or go and buy one, its available in all great booksellers.

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And so it came to pass that Charlie Higson's epic podcast Willie Willie Harry Stee made its long awaited transformation from Podcast to Book!

Yes, on October 9th, Charlie's personal history of the monarchy becomes a literary work, with deliciously witty illustrations by Jim Moir.

It's a rip-roaring romp through history that takes in the Normans, Plantagenets, Tudors, Stuarts, Hanoverians and Windsors, not to mention the infamous Blois (how can we forget them?).

But hang on......how can Charlie interview himself about his own book?? Well, he can't, which is why the excellent Al Murray returns to probe the author.

You can pre-order or buy the book here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/willie-willie-harry-stee-an-epically-short-history-of-our-kings-and-queens-charlie-higson?variant=55169046708603

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In this episode of his Willy Willy Harry Stee Book Club, Charlie Higson looks at a new book which uses eye-witness accounts to paint a stark picture of the start of World War 1.

As war broke out in the summer of 1914, not a nation on Earth understood the magnitude of what they were about to face. To win it, whole populations must be mobilised, and neutrality was impossible to practice.

Our understanding of this complex conflict has been coloured by a blinkered approach to popular history. It has ignored the fact that Denmark actively participated in laying minefields as soon as war began; that the first British shots were fired in West Africa, by a black man; and the first Australian casualties occurred not at Gallipoli, but in the Pacific.

Charlie's guests are books authors Alex Churchill & Nicolai Eberholst, who have scoured the globe in search of an enormous quantity of fresh material, bringing us history not as told by 'great men', but as a people's view of the war which tells a touching and surprising tale of events that many us may have thought we already knew.

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