The Mad Miscellany

by Terry Deary, Martin Brown (Illustrator)

History with the nasty bits left in| The Mad Miscellany serves up all the dreadful details of horrible history you'll ever need to know - from rotten Roman graffiti to terrible teacher tortures and rude royal nicknames, the foul facts are all inside. Want to know: the crushing details about execution by elephant? how to soften your skin Georgian-style - using the skins of puppies? who's idea of a top treat was mashed deer tongues? Whether you're desperate to discover which famous rulers were left-handed, raring to read about the top ten dogs of all time, or just aching to ask about assassinating apes, then this book is for you. History has never been so horrible!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Humor, Childrens

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

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

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mad miscellany is about horrible bits of history. I enjoyed this book because it has lots of interesting historical facts and the book is very funny.
I think the book is aimed at older children because younger children wouldn't understand it and adults wouldn't appreciate the child humour. The mad miscellany is for people who do or don't like history because Terry Deary has made the book both fuuny and gory.
The book has a contents,that has in it the main sections, and each of the sections is split up into different bits.
I liked the mad miscellany because it is incredibly and the facts in the book were extremely interesting. I would advise others to read it because it is such a great book.

[Del Delaney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I feel like this is the first time I've caught mistakes in a Horrible Histories book and I've read most of them. Odysseus was gone from Ithaca for way more than 10 years ergo Argos the Dog is even more of a hero. There was something else that drew my attention as well, but apparently not enough to remember it for this review. Also, the font size in certain parts of the Bulgarian edition was painfully tiny.

[Irena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Teri Deri nikad ne izneveri!

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Książka która ukształtowała moje poczucie humoru.

[Wayne Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The usual fun look at the gruesome bits of history. This time its a mix of a bit of everything from around the world and different time periods in easy to delve into and read-a-bit sections. Great for reading now and again when you only have a quick 5 minutes spare.

[Xuefranklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

very bloody

[Qylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

You have to love a bit of history, especially when it's so well packaged!

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun and entertaining read. A very enjoyable way to learn about this topic.