The Smashing Saxons And The Stormin Normans

Horrible Histories Collections

by Terry Deary

History with twice the nasty bits! Want to *how to make a dead Saxon happy? *why Norman knights slept with a dolly? *who got cow pats as Christmas presents? The Smashing Saxons tells you the terrible truth about the pillaging people who bashed the Brits. Find out how to make like a monk with silent signals, be the judge in a Saxon court, and solve 1,000-year-old riddles. The Stormin' Normins is bulging with fascinating facts about big bad Bill the Conqueror and his bully-boys who battled at Hastings and find out what really happened in 1066! Read on for curious quizzes, rotten recipes, gruesome games and terrible tests...for your teacher!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Humor

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 2006

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

[Mirza · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a young'un in his early teens, this book to me, was what solidified and fueled my affinity for history. The book was not only humorous (albeit it was mainly dark humor), but managed to do so while remaining informative, making it an apt read for those who are getting into history but without the dreary bits.

[Viki · Rating 4 out of 5]

It gives you a lot of facts but it gets boring.

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Horrible Histories is a series of illustrated books published in the UK by Scholastic. They are designed to get children interested in history by concentrating on the trivial, unusual, gory, or unpleasant. They are exceptionally well loved by my history loving children

[Neenee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and educational. I always ended up imagining what the future Horrible Histories instalment would be like if they want to make fun of our current goings-on.

I will still love it's TV series more, though.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good History Book

[Ilib4kids]

ILL Horrible Histories