The President's Desk: An Alt-History of the United States

Description

Shaun Micallef's hilarious look at the American presidents is now in paperback! It all started with a desk made from the hull of a British ship, the HMS Resolute, a gift from Queen Victoria. The President's desk, sitting in the Oval Office of the White House, has certainly seen some action from the Presidents who have sat behind it and made the decisions that have affected the history of the world. In this highly entertaining romp through American history, Shaun Micallef takes us inside the Oval Office to observe each President at work at the desk. Capturing their widely varying personalities and traits we see the evolution of the most powerful country in the world from the men who have sat at the desk. Certainly this is an alternative history of the US with an outrageous, adsurdist re-imagining of everyday life as President and an entirely new view of some of the events that have shaped the land of the free, America. AT LAST! A history book for people who can't be bothered with accuracy. CONTAINS 1000 UNTOLD SECRETS OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, Including: * Why Jimmy Carter destroyed Washington * How George W. Bush killed John Howard * When Calvin Coolidge appeared nude on his own coin * Who drowned Warren Harding in his own hotel room * What Herbert Hoover really thought when he was attacked by Rin-Tin-Tin The President's Desk is the story of America as seen through the eyes of its most powerful piece of furniture. Standing in the most important office in the land for over a hundred years, it has been sat at by no less than twenty-four of the greatest men who ever lived (I'm leaving out Nixon, obviously). This epic retelling of the history of the United States takes us from the desk's early life as the humble timbers of a barquentine frozen in the waters of the Arctic, through its transformation by decree of Queen Victoria, to over a century in the Oval Office as an eventual antique.

Shaun Micallef is an Australian comedian, writer, actor, producer, author and bon vivant. After several years of practising law, Micallef threw it all away for a life in comedy and television. Since '94 he has graced Aussie TV screens in shows such as Full Frontal to Sea Change, to his own gig on Micallef Tonight, Thank God You're Here and Talkin' Bout Your Generation and his current hit show, Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell. He has authored two books: Smithereens and Preincarnate, and received several awards including two Logies, an Aria for Best Comedy Release and an AFI for Screen Craft. He is married with three sons. Praise for Shaun Micallef: 'Shaun Micallef is one of the greatest comic voices of our time' - Matt Lucas (Little Britain) 'Australia's finest satirist and comic surrealist' - Ben Elton