"EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE DAVID, NOBODY WANTS TO BE GOLIATH"

Author Terry Deary discusses his career, writing history, the success of Horrible Histories and his new book

- Emily Staniforth

Here at All About History, we love to learn as much as we can about the past in order to create an engaging and exciting magazine for our readers. Someone who shares this passion with us is writer and actor Terry Deary, who is best-known as the man behind the hugely successful Horrible Histories children’s books. One of Britain’s bestselling authors of the last few decades, he has written over 350 fiction and non-fiction titles for children and adults and is an advocate for making history accessible and enjoyable, bringing his signature humour and wit to the subject. Now, he has published his latest history book for adults, A History of Britain in Ten Enemies. We sat down with Terry to talk about his new book, the success of Horrible Histories and his career in history writing.

You started your career working in theatre and drama. What inspired you to start writing books for children?

I joined the Breconshire Theatre Company, as it was then, as an actor. We wanted to tell stories about the people in that region so we had to research them and put them into story form. I just seemed to have the knack of giving those brilliant actors and creative minds a shape, a structure, using writing skills which I didn’t know I had. Then one tour was for children and we were told to go into schools just before the summer holidays. The actors said: “Terry, go away and write us a script for when we come back in September.” I said: “What will you be doing?” They said: “We’ll be on holiday!”

I came up with a children’s story called The Custard Kid and it was a great success. One of the greatest successes was in a little junior school in Wales: a big puddle appeared in front of a little girl in the front row because she peed herself laughing. But that’s a sign of success, isn’t it?

After that I thought I could turn