History is full of stories of famous men and women who have changed the world through their actions. It’s also full of unknown men and women who, knowingly or not, have also in their own way, changed history. Fortunately, the author has highlighted a number of these unknown men and women in order to give them their rightful place in history. Hence we learn of Captain Robert Jenkins, and in particular his ear, Lisa Gioconda, Sir George Cayley, Alexander Yorke, whose joke telling led Queen Victoria to state “we are not amused”, and Richard Ameryk, after whom, some have suggested, America was named.

Each of these unknown people are given a page or so to celebrate their lives and contributions to history and the only drawback being a lack of sequel. ( )