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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Horrible Histories - The Worst In The World is packed full of the foulest gold, silver and bronze medal-winning entries in horrible categories such as:
Diseases, Battles, Emperors, Punishments, Schools and More
Discover what made the cut for the worst job in history (spoiler alert - it involves a king, a toilet and some botty wipes), or the worst ever pirate (must be the one who tied his own noose around his neck).
History - it’s the absolute worst!
Terry Deary is an actor and author who is well known for his best selling HORRIBLE HISTORIES SERIES for children aged 7+. This entertaining book (with fun illustrations by Martin Brown) sets out a top 3 of some of the nastiest, horrifying and disgusting parts of history. It’s breezy and fun albeit quite western specific (I wish there had been more from Africa and the far east) but hopefully will stimulate readers’ interest in the subject.
I picked this up because I was a big fan of the children’s TV series adaptation of HORRIBLE HISTORIES but had never actually picked up one of the books. Having read this I can see why they are so popular. The grisly and disgusting events and people discussed in this book are recounted with grisly relish in exactly the kind of tone that young readers are going to absolutely love. That’s not to say that the book is without compassion - when discussing problematic people like Lucrezia Borgia, Deary points out that there may be a difference between what people say about her and the truth - but don’t come into this expecting a huge amount of nuance.
Deary has organised the book into categories such as the Worst Rebellion in the World, the Worst School in the World and the Worst Pirate in the World and then has three entries for each (ranked gold, silver and bronze). Each entry is pithily written, getting across key facts with humour (which is emphasised by Brown’s delightfully sarky illustrations). There is a particular focus on western history here - there are a few entries from Chinese history, Peru, Nigeria, the Zulu nation and from what is modern-day Iran - but the majority is western European, which is a shame and a missed opportunity. There were also a couple of overlaps between entries, which didn’t bother me but was something I noticed.
All in all it’s an entertaining read that breaks history down into easily digestible topics in a gory way that young readers will enjoy. I came away from this thoroughly understanding the appeal of the series and would happily dip into another book showing history’s grottiest moments again.
The Verdict:
Terry Deary is an actor and author who is well known for his best selling HORRIBLE HISTORIES SERIES for children aged 7+. This entertaining book (with fun illustrations by Martin Brown) sets out a top 3 of some of the nastiest, horrifying and disgusting parts of history. It’s breezy and fun albeit quite western specific (I wish there had been more from Africa and the far east) but hopefully will stimulate readers’ interest in the subject.
HORRIBLE HISTORIES - THE WORST IN THE WORLD was released in the United Kingdom on 13th April 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Horrible Histories - The Worst In The World is packed full of the foulest gold, silver and bronze medal-winning entries in horrible categories such as:
Discover what made the cut for the worst job in history (spoiler alert - it involves a king, a toilet and some botty wipes), or the worst ever pirate (must be the one who tied his own noose around his neck).
Terry Deary is an actor and author who is well known for his best selling HORRIBLE HISTORIES SERIES for children aged 7+. This entertaining book (with fun illustrations by Martin Brown) sets out a top 3 of some of the nastiest, horrifying and disgusting parts of history. It’s breezy and fun albeit quite western specific (I wish there had been more from Africa and the far east) but hopefully will stimulate readers’ interest in the subject.
I picked this up because I was a big fan of the children’s TV series adaptation of HORRIBLE HISTORIES but had never actually picked up one of the books. Having read this I can see why they are so popular. The grisly and disgusting events and people discussed in this book are recounted with grisly relish in exactly the kind of tone that young readers are going to absolutely love. That’s not to say that the book is without compassion - when discussing problematic people like Lucrezia Borgia, Deary points out that there may be a difference between what people say about her and the truth - but don’t come into this expecting a huge amount of nuance.
Deary has organised the book into categories such as the Worst Rebellion in the World, the Worst School in the World and the Worst Pirate in the World and then has three entries for each (ranked gold, silver and bronze). Each entry is pithily written, getting across key facts with humour (which is emphasised by Brown’s delightfully sarky illustrations). There is a particular focus on western history here - there are a few entries from Chinese history, Peru, Nigeria, the Zulu nation and from what is modern-day Iran - but the majority is western European, which is a shame and a missed opportunity. There were also a couple of overlaps between entries, which didn’t bother me but was something I noticed.
All in all it’s an entertaining read that breaks history down into easily digestible topics in a gory way that young readers will enjoy. I came away from this thoroughly understanding the appeal of the series and would happily dip into another book showing history’s grottiest moments again.
The Verdict:
Terry Deary is an actor and author who is well known for his best selling HORRIBLE HISTORIES SERIES for children aged 7+. This entertaining book (with fun illustrations by Martin Brown) sets out a top 3 of some of the nastiest, horrifying and disgusting parts of history. It’s breezy and fun albeit quite western specific (I wish there had been more from Africa and the far east) but hopefully will stimulate readers’ interest in the subject.
HORRIBLE HISTORIES - THE WORST IN THE WORLD was released in the United Kingdom on 13th April 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
