Crackin' Castles

by Terry Deary, Martin Brown (Illustrator)

From Tintagel Castle in Cornwall to Skibo Castle in the Scottish highlands, Horrible Histories: Crackin' Castles covers the history of Britain from the time of the Romans to the London Blitz. Filled with adventure, danger, magic, sieges, treachery, spies, revenge and much more besides - all in the classic Horrible Histories style! It's a seriously horrible read.

Genres: History, Childrens, Nonfiction

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2016

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

[Bojan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super fun book! :)

[Amy Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Horrible Histories. I grew up on these books. This one, however, just missed the mark for me.

Whilst it is formatted like your classic HH book, I found that the issue may lie with either the stories or castles selected.

For some of the castles the stories told are either stories confirmed not to be true (and an acknowledgement in the book that they aren't true), without mentioning the real story. Or alternatively some are stories of things that happened near the castle and have nothing to do with it.

As someone who like reading their books on castles, it was a bit disappointing that there are castles that would be perfect for a book like this that were missed, and then for the ones included, they have better stories that could have been shared.

[Ben Gilman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always loved castles, the designs of the buildings and the stories behind them have always fascinated me and they were a major part in my love of history. The Horrible Histories books were another major factor in my early love of the topic, so Horrible Histories: Crackin' Castles was a very fun, nostalgic read between heavier books. featuring the great humour and fun illustrations that the series is well known for, this book summarises the long history of British castles in a fun and concise manner.

[Liselotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was NOT what I was expecting! I really expected a book which was comparable to the series Great British Castles, but it wasn't like that at all. You just get a name of a castle, a year and one (!) story about said castle. That's it. It kinda let me down, really! I'm usually a really big fan of all the horrible histories books, but this one was just a disappointment and felt unnecessary in the series. A shame!

[Mary Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a reason these books make history majors. And it was super fun to read about castles I'd visited studying abroad this summer!

[Monika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book packed with 'horrible' facts 😁 great read for big and small!

[Jennifer Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of lovely insights to different castles and lists of little ghost stories too.

[Candy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting