The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain club was started by Stephen Pile in order to bring together people of notable ineptitude so that they could share common experiences of failure. The club had a handbook, The Book of Heroic Failures, which became a best-seller.
Contents
Description
The description of The Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain at the front of the book under "The Author" stated that Stephen Pile set up the Club "Three years ago" and over the years had grown in members from 20 to 200. The club was a celebration of people who had a genuine flair for the exact opposite of success.
Application form
The book had a form for readers to fill in and send to an address. The membership form (in the 10th edition of The Book of Heroic Failures) included a tick box with the words "I am interesting in demonstrating my main area of incompetence at the festival", which may have been deliberate.
Demise
Shortly after forming, and after a couple of meetings and after Pile was deposed as president for showing alarming competence by preventing a disaster involving a soup tureen, the club was quickly forced to close.
According to the book's sequel (The Return of Heroic Failures), after receiving 30,000 applications when The Book of Heroic Failures was published, Pile closed the club, declaring it a "failure as a failure". On other accounts, he lost his membership in the club because the book was such a success.