Stormin' Normans

Horrible Histories #10

by Terry Deary

This title contains fascinating facts about Bill the Conquerer and his bully boys who battled at Hastings, stormed around Europe and joined the Crusades. There are tales of limb-chopping, terribly tortured saints and you can find out what "really" happened in 1066.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Humor, Historical, British Literature, Medieval

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

A former actor, theatre-director and drama teacher, Deary says he began writing when he was 29. Most famously, he is one of the authors 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.

The first series of a live-action comedy sketch show of the same name was shown on CBBC in 2009 and a second series is due.

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. His numerous accolades also include the Blue Peter "Best Nonfiction Author of the Century" Award in the U.K.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Chloe Reads Books]

As usual, no official numbered rating for these! I feel like I learnt a lot from this one seeing as I just went in chanting 1066, and "William, William, Henry, Stephen"...

[AlexB_E2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVE this book and the Horrible Histories series. I use to watch the horrible histories show and that really got me into history when I was little. But then forgot about it when I got older. And then in 6 grade when there were the social studies classes, I really got into history again. I just find history really interesting, I like knowing what our ancestors did on this planet, what they did, what achievements they made and a bunch of more stuff like that. I also like this book because it is littered with funny and weird facts. I strongly recommend this book to anybody who likes history or gory facts.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t my favourite of the Horrible Histories books, but it was still okay. I just felt as though this one didn’t tie together as well as some of the others. I feel like there needs to be a sense of an overall narrative being told, even in a non-fiction book, and that was missing from here.

The good news is that there was plenty of information on the Normans themselves and some pretty entertaining anecdotes, as well as some information on the truth behind the legend of St. George and the dragon. But I won’t spoil it for you here, because if you’re interested then you should read the book. It’s not amazing, but it’ll pass an hour or so, even for an adult.

[Jenny Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son enjoyed this book and I found it quite informative.

[Skyler Chaney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was garbage

[Amelia Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned loads from this book! Good read

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not very interested.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this following on from the Smashing Saxons book was actually quite serendipitous because it definitely was not planned, but actually helped solidify some of the information contained within the Saxons book. Especially helpful given that the Saxons were defeated by the Normans and that then leads into what we recognise as our history.

I remember from my time in school that we did focus briefly on the Norman conquest, the battle of 1066, and how William the Conqueror set himself on the throne. But I don’t remember whether we were taught about the circumstances leading up to that battle, or what had come first for the Normans to take over. I feel like if we had gone through the circumstances leading up to 1066 then I would have been able to make much better sense of the actual Norman conquest.

But hey ho, who says the National Curriculum had to make any sort of sense, eh?

[Anna Kļaviņa · Rating 3 out of 5]

New edition of Horrible Histories comes with Quiz! :)
Horrible Histories have their own wonderful TV show, here some video's about Normans from the show. Words We Get From The Normans , The Doomsday Book and Mud & Matilda
If you enjoy these read a book too!

[Lady Jaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this installment too, although I wasn't fond of some of the passive-aggressive comments about Christianity made in this one. Terry is very candid about the atrocites the church commtted wehn he's writing his history, but never this snarky. Womp.

[H J Palmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horrible Histories is a classic, it will be appropriate for my child, right..?
...wrong.

Is it woke?

Blessedly, this was written before woke revisionism.

Is it good?

It is a fun way to learn history, though the humour sometimes makes the actual story confusing. Not only do we learn about Norman history, but also source analysis. It could be relevant for year 7/8 studies in some countries.

Is it appropriate for your children?

I really thought the only issue here would be gore. However, that's not the case. Deary has an incredibly secular world view and this shines through. He partakes in a lot of historically relevant Catholic bashing, for example; "with God on their side, they massacre the Muslim men, women and children". The Catholics themselves partake in a lot of idol worship, and while historically accurate this may not be something your child has the faith and wisdom to understand. Finally, Deary himself also speaks of all religion in a negative light, most concerningly adds an irrelevant and out of context Bible verse.
There are a few historically accurate things that may be too mature for a younger child. There are a few mentions to 'naughty bits' and items the peoples created of a phallic nature. Similarly, there is mention of a man assaulting a woman to woo her.
Finally, to the author's amusement, he insults his readers by calling them dummy, fat, etc. This might be taken in good fun by your child, but obviously would be to the detriment of those with self esteem issues.
Given the very individual responses children will have to this, I cannot suggest an age for this novel. I do suggest you reflect on your child and do not let primary school kids read it.

[Ryley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is set between the years 911 - 1204 and focuses around the stormin normans including Big Bad Bill ( William the Conqueror ), the crazy crusaders, Mischievous Monks, the unlikely legends, Miserable Monarchs and more! This book gives you information on the background on the stormin normans and the progress they made to become one of the fiercest armies in the world. It tells you their failures and their conquests and what it was like during the time period in which it is set. Join author Terry Deary and illustrator Martin Brown in this funny but gory tale on the Storman Normans...... " It's knight time. "


I have to admit this book was not my favorite. I say this because in some places it was boring and I found myself reading the same things over and over. In comparison, I loved the books funny but gory humor, it made the reading funnier and less boring it was fun way to learn about history and also laugh and have a good time. I would recommend this to people who are over twelve. I say this because people under twelve are less likely to get some of the jokes that appear in this book. Overall I like this book. And would recommend it.

[Abbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book but I didn't love it, I found it a bit boring in places and it took me a while to get into it.

Terry Deary wrote the book really well and it had a lot of useful information but I think some sections just got a bit tedious and hard to read.

The book is set between the year 911 - 1204 and focuses around the stormin normans including William the Conqueror, the crazy crusaders, Mischievous monks and some unlikely legends. I do recommend this book for people who want to learn about the normans but want something a bit more comedic and gory.

I did like this book once I got into it and found it quite an easy and quick read but obviously some areas are a bit boring. I do still recommend it if you are a Terry Deary fan or just if you want to learn a bit about the Normans wicked ways. I will definitely be reading more of Terry Deary's books but I wish I had started with a different one.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title contains fascinating facts about Bill the Conquerer and his bully boys who battled at Hastings, stormed around Europe and joined the Crusades. There are tales of limb-chopping, terribly tortured saints and you can find out what "really" happened in 1066.

Soooo the stormin nornmans intresting lot during the battle of 1066 when the Anglo-saxon king Harold Godwinson was fighting the vikings off and won the only issue is that William the duke of normandy wanted his piece of the English pie. So he sailed over with his 7,000 troops and headed for hastings or 7 miles northwest of hasting 😅🤓 the Anglo-saxon king hearing this rushs back with his 10,000 men to take on the normans. And well you all know the rest of the story william the conqueror won the battle and we had a norman king on the thone.

Despite the interesting things that the normans got up to I felt it hard to read and get through this one i tried but got boring at times and this is so far my least favourite book of the series it's not my favourite time of history. But for what it is it's great funny and very imformative great for kids if they need to do a history test on the stormin normans.

[Keaton]

I think this book is good and that the series are amazing and I would recommend it to a lot of people and the way this book is laid out and written makes its fun to learn about history.

This book is about the history of the norman people and the best part(s) in this park is the tales about them always poisoning each other and bill who was apparently ruthless with his enemies, but overall this book is a 5 star book and its really good if you wanna know about the Normans.

[Helene Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm thoroughly enjoying rereading these Horrible Histories books that I haven’t read in over a decade! There is plenty of information included that you might not find in more 'traditional' history books.

The cartoons are brilliant and still make me giggle even after all these years and Terry Deary's writing is still as engaging as it was all those years ago.

Even if you're an adult historian you will still enjoy reading these, whether reading them for the first time or rediscovering them!

[Charlie St-St · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read to break up all the thick books I've been powering through - and a kickstart to my summer mission of building my subject knowledge before I start teaching 21 different historical topics from September.

The Stormin' Normans will always be a fan favourite, and it's always a pleasure to return to the amusing simplicity of Horrible Histories. Terry Deary is a babe.

[John Naylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was as good as the others in the series in terms of presentation but it also had a lot less history in it. I feel it could have been combined with something else rather than padded.

What there is in the book is good but not quite as good as others in the series.

[E.A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty funny and interesting even though I knew a fair bit about the period. I don't think I could read too many Horrible Histories in a row but picking one up every now and then is a good way to keep learning about history.

I particularly liked the imitation minstrel song in this one.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Concise, comic but accurate engagement for those otherwise inclined to simply trawl the net for assignment purposes.

[Sofie Sieling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I enjoyed the historical facts regarding Hastings and the politics thereafter more than the rather random recipes to make Norman food and play Norman games. It was funny, indeed, I must say.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

216 - 2019

[Alžběta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this was glorious! Hilarious and so much fun! I have no idea how I discovered this brilliant series only now, but I am looking forward to binge-listening to all the Horrible Histories!

[edward clark]

not rating but this was cute and i had fun 💪

[Ewelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Cheshmaan Zahra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great childhood book

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

History with all the mad, funny and gory bits! The facts are fantastical but true. Terry Deary’s prolific and incredibly popular Horrible Histories series never fails to surprise.

[Grayson]

Stormin' normans the book is about the normans during the 911 AD to 1204 how they came what they did, why they did it, where they did stuff. It first gives you some background knowledge about the normans in the first seven pages including a timeline. On the tenth page, it gives you the story of "Big bad bill" and how he was so famous for what he did. on page fifteen through the end, it gives you descriptive stories and history about the normans and what they did. The book gives you a good amount of pictures to give you a visual of what you are reading.

I choose this book because I like learning about the history of anything with death and blood and other gory things. The other reason I choose this book is that I did not know much of the Normans and I in world history so it did help me a bit. The book is very entertaining by the way it gives you the history with the jokes and the pictures. I would recommend this book to people who like knights and history. My favorite part is when it gives you a picture of a girl that put a poison plant drops in her eye to make them bigger for the boys and a man asks why are her pupils big and a woman said she was dead. Read horrible history if you need help with history class it WILL help.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay let's talk about the Horrible Histories.

You may be aware of them as a TV show, which I highly, highly recommend, but you may not be aware that they are also books! Which I also recommend!

It's hard to talk about the Horrible Histories specifically. They're hysterical short nonfiction books consisting of maybe 120 pages tops? Aimed at children, they set out to tell you all about the really nasty side of history, which I am always down for. They're smart and funny with great illustrations, and I would never, ever have a problem recommending them to anyone, with two caveats.

The first is that they can be a little inaccurate. I really do mean a little inaccurate; it's mostly erring on the side of "we don't know which is really true but this makes a better story," and occasionally "research marches on." The second is that the author, Terry Deary, is kind of an asshole, particularly on the subject of libraries. I won't repeat his comments here. Suffice to say he's kind of a jerk.

But the books remain absolutely hysterical. A+ would read and love again.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I subscribed to the series after watching an advert online, and read them as soon as they arrived, and couldn't wait for the next one to come out! They give such great facts about each time period and even on periods I knew about, the magazines contained information I had never heard before.

It was interesting yet it irritated me that there were little facts in this magazine. Plus it was presented in quite a dull way, so I was a little disappointed with this set.

On to number 38...