Terry Deary

Terry Deary (born 4 March 1956, Sunderland) is a children's author now living in Burnhope, County Durham, England.

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is the author of the Horrible Histories series of books popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history. Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages and imitated.

A cartoon series has been made of the series of books and was shown on CiTV for a period in 2002.

Terry is also known widely throughout children and adult reading groups alike for his True Stories series (see below for series list).

He received an Honorary Doctorate of Education from the University of Sunderland in 2000.

True Stories Series

This non-fiction series was released in both hardback and paperback beginning 1992 with the latest edition (non-combination) being published and released in 1999. A list of the books in this series are below:

• True Monster Stories (1992)
• True Horror Stories (1993)
• True Crime Stories (1994)
• True Ghost Stories (1995)
• True Shark Stories (1995)
• True Detective Stories (1996)
• True UFO Stories (1997)
• True Spy Stories (1998)
• True War Stories (1998)
• True Disaster Stories (1999)
• True Mystery Stories

There have also been two books that were combinations of more than one of the previously named books. They were:

• True Horror Stories / True Monster Stories / True Ghost Stories (1998)
• True Detective Stories / True Spy Stories (2002)

Tudor Terror Series

These historical novels are based on situations that happened in real life although are based around the Tudor and Elizabethan times.

This is a list of the series:

• The Prince of Rags and Patches (a historical novel based on the murder of the Princes in the Tower)
• The King in Blood Red and Gold (a novel based on Henry VIII, the Scottish Wars and the Border Reivers)
• The Lady of Fire and Tears (a historical novel based on Mary, Queen of Scots and the spy trade)
• The Knight of Stars and Storms (a novel based on The Armada, Drake, piracy and the Spanish problem)
• The Lord of the Dreaming Globe (a novel based on Shakespeare, London plagues and the Essex rebellion)
• The Queen of the Dying Light (a historical novel based on John Dee's witchcraft plots and Elizabeth I)

Terry Deary quotes

"I've no interest in schools. They have no relevance in the 21st century. They were a Victorian idea to get kids off the street. Who decided that putting 30 kids with only their age in common in a classroom with one teacher was the best way of educating? At my school there were 52 kids in the class and all I learned was how to pass the 11-plus. Testing is the death of education. Kids should leave school at 11 and go to work. Not down the mines or up chimneys, mind, but working with computers or something relevant. Everything I learned after 11 was a waste of time. Trigonometry, Boyle's law: it's never been of any use to me. They should have been teaching me the life skills I was going to need, such as building relationships, parenting and managing money. I didn't have a clue about any of these things at 18. Schools need to change."

Other Books

A list of other books published by Terry Deary are below:

• Spooks (1997)
• Hope Street (1980)
• Ghost For Sale (2001)
• The Treasure Of Crazy Horse (2001)
• The Custard Kid (2001)
• The Wishing Well Ghost (2002)
• Into The Lion's Den (2002)
• Footsteps In The Fog (2003)
• The Boy Who Haunted Himself (2004)
• The Last Viking (2005)
• The King In Blood Red And Gold (2005)
• The Prince Of Rags And Patches (2005)
• The Fire Thief (2005)
• The Lady Of Fire And Tears (2005)
• The Hat-Trick (2006)
• The Lord Of The Dreaming Globe (2006)
• Queen Of The Dying Light (2006)
• Flight Of The Fire Thief (2006)
• The Fire Thief Fights Back (2007)
• Potty Politics (part of the The Knowledge series)
• Great big Father Christmas joke book
• Horrible Histories
• Master Crook’s Crime Academy

See also

• List of children's non-fiction writers
• Horrible Histories
• The Knowledge

External links

• Terry Deary's homepage
• Terry Deary's speech at the Game Based Learning Conference, London, March 2009