Terry Deary

Throughout history, the little man has rebelled against the big man and this is the story of many of these rebellions. Deary does go overboard on the puns at times but that is something I am able to forgive because the breadth of this book is huge. Yes, there are some very well-known individuals and groups here but there are also lots of little vignettes that really drive home a message. It's wonderfully readable and of a huge scope that demonstrates a lot of learning in and amongst the humour.

I really liked the idea behind this book, to tell the story of Britain by considering history in the lens of its enemies. The enemies are well chosen and the history is knowledgable and well put together. However the incessant punning got on my nerves after a while. My fault I guess as this was written by one of the authors of the Horrible Histories but the gap between the erudite historical descriptions and the juvenile puns was a little excessive.

Gorgeous Georgians covers English history from 1714 until Queen Victoria's ascension in 1837 (Yes, the reign of King William IV is being counted.) As usual with the Horrible Histories books, this one is funny with funny illustrations.

I've seen the Georgian Makeover verses 1, 2, 4, 5-7, & 10 (with some differences in wording) sung on a video from the British TV show. It was interesting to read verses 3, 8, & 9 in this book. I don't blame the singer for skipping the third one. Ew.
As for the show more men's fashions, I knew some of it from the amusing romance novels of Georgette Heyer. (If you've ever wondered about why Yankee Doodle called the feather he stuck in his cap 'macaroni,' you'll be able to infer it from this section.)

This book also taught me something about the pat-a-cake rhyme in the section on Georgian cooking. It includes a recipe for strawberry fritters, which I didn't try.

Daniel Defoe's seven classes of English inhabitants was pretty sad if one wasn't a member of classes three through one. The life of children and women of the period wasn't so great, either. The early Prime Ministers didn't sound so great, particularly Lord North.

If you enjoy reading about true crime, there's a section on that which includes highwaymen. We get the generally accepted story for Dick Turpin, Rob Roy MacGregor, and Blackbeard before the less pleasant truth. There's also information about pirates in general, and punishments during the Georgian period.

There's a section on bodysnatchers. The one on Georgian doctors and Georgian cures made me glad not to be living then. (I confess that I did not guess which one among ten cures listed was a fake. It sounded just as weird as the others, except for the one I knew was true.) Poor King George III underwent some pretty nasty attempts to cure his insanity.

I'd just as soon skip all of the Georgian games mentioned except the jingling match, which seems pretty harmless. The Georgian slang quiz I failed miserably.

The section on revolutions of the period introduced me to a heroine I'd never read about before: Jemima Nicholas of Wales. How she and some other women terrified some drunk French soldiers into surrendering was good reading! I knew about Luddites, of course, but not that the Ned Ludd from whom they got the name wasn't one of them. The Peterloo Massacre was very sad, especially that poor baby.

The last two sections before the index are a test and a quiz. I didn't do well with either, but I enjoyed reading them anyway.

Yes, I recommend this book as a painless way to learn about aspects of history usually ignored. show less

Terry Deary continues with his bid to brutalise bedtime stories around at my house. Beginning in an Athens besieged by Spartans during the Archidamian War, it takes literally moments for the rotten corpses to start piling up. Within a few pages the young hero's parents are coughing up blood and vomiting their way to a plague pit, but not before his mother, raving on her deathbed, has revealed herself as a Spartan and encouraged her impending orphan infant, Darius, to throw himself on the show more mercy of her brother.

Dutifully, Darius crosses the enemy's lines and tracks down his uncle. Unfortunately, being a Spartan, uncle Alcmaeon turns out to be a complete kusthos, so it's hard labour and beatings for the Athenian Typhoid Mary. Then, out of adversity, Darius discovers his place in the world, which allows him an upbeat ending, but it seems rather a shame to dwell on that. show less