Horrible Histories - Approach

Approach

Everything I learnt after 11 was a waste of time...it was boring, badly taught and not related to the real world...schools are nothing but a Victorian idea to get people off the street.. Who decided that that putting 30 kids with only their age in common in a classroom with one teacher was the best way of educating?

Deary commented in interview, "if I had it my way, I wouldn't have schools at all. They don't educate, they just keep kids off the streets. But my books educate, because they prepare kids for life...It's outrageous, why don't we start telling children the truth about history? I hope my books do just that."

Horrible Histories are designed to engage and enthuse the reader about a subject while appearing subversive, primarily aiming to entertain with a background educative purpose. Deary views himself as kid who wants to share facts with other kids, and as a writer who wishes to "entertain first and inform second". He does not respect authors who follow either extreme, that is, those who either only inform or only entertain. He believes that "readers are more important than writers and their needs have to come first" and that if the writer engages the reader, they will retain more knowledge from the work. The series has a sceptical view on the accuracy and validity of history. An introduction to one of the books in series states "History can be horrible. Horribly hard to learn. The trouble is it keeps on changing ... In history a 'fact' is sometimes not a fact at all. Really it's just someone's 'opinion'. And opinions can be different for different people ... Teachers will try to tell you there are 'right' and 'wrong' answers even if there aren't."

Deary uses researchers for all Horrible Histories often in specialised fields, such as a military history. While researching his books, he immerses himself in the period so he is in the right context, compiling much more information than he needs. He tends to exclude all the 'boring facts' such as dates, because, he maintains "dates don't matter. Human experience matters". He wishes to avoid 'preaching' the value of history, instead focusing on the wonders of human nature, and asking how we each would behave in other people's shoes.

Deary uses many generic literary conventions to make his books more accessible to his readers. He deliberately writes in prose styles that follow natural speech cadences. He also frequently uses alliteration and assonance. Deary considered poetry to be "another weapon in the writer's armoury" rather than a specialised form that may only be used in specific circumstances. He maintains that the impersonal language used in textbooks alienates the reader. He therefore uses the second person to talk directly to the reader, as if he were talking to them in real life. He views Horrible Histories as one of the few non-fiction or fiction series which utilise this "underused style of writing".

With Horrible Histories I want children to think about how people in certain moments of history felt and also for them to consider what these people were experiencing...in Horrible Histories I'm asking, 'Why do people do what they do?' And, ultimately, 'Why do I behave the way I do?

Deary uses the newspaper style to make serious material more accessible so the reader approaches the piece in "a more relaxed frame of mind than they would a school text", as in an article about the Massacre at Lidice. Newspapers are also used to illustrate light-hearted stories, such as might appear in a tabloid. Newspaper extracts, along with letters and diaries are used to tell stories from the perspectives of individual people, in order "to get away from the objective, and to get readers to view history subjectively".

When writing about events and historical periods that are still in living memory, such as the Second World War, the series aims to maintain sensitivity. Deary argues that a story about a Tudor executioner who needs ten hacks to chop off someone's head, for example, can, however, afford to be comical as contemporary society is so far removed from the event. Deary believes that it is important for children to know about recent events, such as The Holocaust, not relegating them as taboo subjects that cannot be discussed. He has commented that the books do have borders they won't cross. They wouldn't, for example, describe violence against babies, such as the Vikings inflicted, and aside from some snogging, the series doesn't venture into the realms of sex.

The majority of the series' demographic are 'reluctant readers', who like books they can "pick one up, read a small section, and then put it down again". Deary attributes this to the use of short chapters, the fact that one may read the book in a non-linear order, and the varying uses of media in each book, such as quizzes and comic strips.