The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures

Stephen Pile

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571277308
• Year: 2011

THE SUNDAY TIMES HUMOUR BOOK OF THE YEAR

'One of the few books to make me laugh out loud' Sunday Express

With Stephen Pile's The Ultimate Book of Heroic Failures, celebrate the very best in failure with this all new collection of outrageously funny misadventures from the author of the classic number one bestseller The Book of Heroic Failures.

Anyone can be a success, but it takes real and original genius to foul up big time. These are the all-time greats, Gods in the field of failure, surreal artists, who spurn mere drab success ('I'm a winner, Lord Sugar') to explore the vast, magical, life-enhancing possibilities of getting it wrong. Any of us could make a mistake, but these great souls can turn the simplest everyday task into a scene of jaw-dropping wonder. These are the immortals.

Failure is everywhere. The Book of Heroic Failures, takes us on an all-new and mind-bendingly hilarious tour to celebrate the most spectacular and absurd failures of the last twenty-five years. There are 235 stories in total spread from the Outer Hebrides to America, Ireland, Australia, Europe and Africa.

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Epigraph
• INTRODUCTION
• NEW WORLD RECORDS
• TAKING THE INITIATIVE
• DOINGIT IN THE WORKPLACE
• LEADING BY EXAMPLE
• THE INTELLECTUAL CONTRIBUTION
• DOING IT WHEN YOU’RE OUT AND ABOUT
• MAINTAINING LAW AND ORDER
• AN EVERYDAY STORY OF MEDIA FOLK
• THE SHOW MUST GO ON
• MATTERS OF THE HEART AND SOUL
• WORKING WITH ANIMALS
• THIS SPORTING LIFE
• USING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY
• IT’S HAPPENING RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW
• NO SMOKE WITH OUT FIRE: STORIES I FAILED TO PIN DOWN
• THE ART OF BEING WRONG
• EPILOGUE
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• By the Same Author
• About the Author
• Copyright