Horrible Histories

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Horrible Histories
The front cover of France.
Author Terry Deary
Illustrator Martin Brown; Philip Reeve; Peter Hepplewhite
Cover Artist Martin Brown; Philip Reeve; Peter Hepplewhite
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Subject(s) Periods of, and people in, history
Genre(s) Children's; history
Publisher Scholastic
Released 1993

Horrible Histories is a series of illustrated books published in the United Kingdom by Scholastic. They are designed to get children interested in history by concentrating on the trivial, unusual, gory, or unpleasant. The series has proved exceptionally successful in commercial terms. The books are written by Terry Deary and illustrated by Martin Brown.

The first books in the series, The Terrible Tudors and The Awesome Egyptians, were published in June 1993.

Contents

[edit] Controversy

One particular book, Bloody Scotland, was almost banned in Scotland by the Scottish Separatist Group, who claimed it promoted a UK centric, anti-Scottish viewpoint of Scottish history, using comments like "Cook the haggis until it looks like a hedgehog after the fifteenth lorry has run over it". This section of the book was called Horrible Haggis, which was also annoying to the SSG. [1]. The books were taken to the Commission for Racial Equality, who threw out the claims.

Similarly, the National Trust tried to ban Cruel Kings and Mean Queens because it made jokes about Prince Charles's ears, who happens to be a patron of the Trust; some text on Elizabeth II was also disliked. According to Terry Deary's homepage, the content of the book The USA has been banned in some areas. [2]

There was also some controversy on eBay about The Barmy British Empire, over what Queen Victoria said in the book about her husband, Albert.

[edit] Titles in Progress

  • Horrible Histories Annual 2008 - (Aug 07) (Calendar)
  • Horrible Histories Handbook - Witches - (Sept 07) (Witches)
  • Horrible Histories Handbook - Gladiators (Gladiators)
  • Horrible Histories Handbook - Warriors - (Mar 07) (Warriors)
  • Horrible Histories Handbook - Villains - (Villains)
  • Horrible Histories - China - (History of China)
  • Horrible Histories City - Oxford - (Feb 07) (History of Oxford)
  • Horrible Histories - Wales - (Feb 08) (History of Wales)
  • Horrible Histories pop-up book - (Sept 08)
  • The Wicked History of Britain

[edit] Titles in the series

France.
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France.
The Slimy Stuarts.
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The Slimy Stuarts.
The Rotten Romans.
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The Rotten Romans.

There are also the 'Two Horrible Books in One' versions

[edit] Contradictions

In the Horrible Histories series, there is are two books titled The Horrible History of the World and The Wicked History of the World but they are both the same book, just having different headings. The same incident occurred with The Horribly Huge Quiz Book and Massive Millennium Quiz Book and The Mad Millennium and Mad Millennium Play. Also, there are two different covers for Horrible Christmas.

[edit] Sticker and Activity Books

There are also quite a number of 'Horrible Histories Sticker and Activity Books'

[edit] Audio Tapes

There is also a large collection of Audio tapes including:

  • The Woeful Second World War
  • The Terrible Tudors
  • The Vicious Vikings
  • The Frightful First World War
  • The Groovy Greeks
  • The Vile Victorians
  • The Measly Middle Ages
  • The Rotten Romans
  • The Savage Stone Age
  • The Stormin' Normans

[edit] Magazines

In late 2003 Terry Deary released the Horrible Histories Magazine Collection and in 2005 some of the titles in the series were released as free audiobooks as part of a promotion with breakfast cereal. Here is a list of the 60 Issues of the Magazine in the order in which they are received:

Magazine 5: The Measly Middle Ages
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Magazine 5: The Measly Middle Ages
Christmas Special
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Christmas Special

According to Horrible Histories, the series had become so popular that they decided to add another 20 issues to the magazine collection.

The issues are as follows:

There have also been three 'special' magazines in the series.

They are:

[edit] TV

There has also been a TV series made out of Horrible Histories featuring Stitch and Mo as they embark on journeys to discover the real secrets of the past - the gory ones.

[edit] Fictions

A series of fiction written by Terry Deary about history will be published, but all are still in progress.

  • Horrible Histories Fiction - The Romans - (Jul 07)
  • Horrible Histories Fiction - The Egyptians - (Jul 07)
  • Horrible Histories Fiction - The Tudors
  • Horrible Histories Fiction - The Victorians
  • Horrible Histories Fiction - The Greeks

[edit] Spin-Offs

There have been several spin-offs written in a similar style to Horrible Histories:

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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