Heroic Failures Documented

Introduction

My brother-in-law Peter, who we sadly lost to throat cancer introduced me to this book in the nineteen-eighties.

There are some amazing funny facts and situations documented within these pages, and I don't think I can add anything to these stories. I have the original book plus some updated copies. So this is just to list a couple of these stories that have stuck with me and make you want to investigate it further.

The description on Amazon is:

This is a humorous collection of accounts of people, plans and projects, which have failed in different areas of life such as sport, the arts, crime and politics.

And there is more here

Failure is everywhere. There are 235 stories in total spread from the Outer Hebrides to America, Ireland, Australia, Europe and Africa. The Syrian entry, for example, holds the world all-comers record as the driver who got most lost under satnav direction (5000 miles).

From the most driving test failures (959), the most pointless election (in Dakota, in which not even the mayor voted), the worst robbery (when two different sets of bank robbers struck simultaneously) and the worst mugger (who left his victim $250 better off), to the holidaying rugby team of fifty-somethings from Dorchester who, due to a mis-translation, ended up playing the top team from Romania live on state TV, this is the ultimate book to make you feel better about yourself and the world around you.

This is me holding my original copy and I have taken some pages from it to give you an idea of what to expect.

I was gobsmacked by Indiana rounding up the value of π to four to make calculations easier, although I could see that happening again today.

Then there was this film which happened in my home town of Preston.

I also like the least popular Christian names, sorry it's a bit blurry.

I will concur with a page from The Art Of Being Wrong section

I think "Unbelievable" by EMF is appropriate for these stories.

Thank you for reading and I hope this brought a smile or two to your face.