Terry Deary Books in Order

Six theatre projects show how ideas can develop through discussion, improvisation and practical work with children. The plays are intended for schools, amateur groups and professional performers, connecting theatrical practice with learning through participation.

This historical novel revisits the case of Maria Marten and William Corder. Using fiction to reconsider Corder's reputation as a brutal murderer, Deary questions the image passed down through earlier fictional accounts of the crime.

Calamity Kate stars in a Hollywood silent film, but dangerous accidents keep interrupting the production. With a crocodile in the swimming pool and equipment tampered with, Kate and the Custard Kid face trouble beyond the script.

Young John Lambton goes fishing on a Sunday and awakens an evil worm. The creature keeps growing, feeding on unpleasant thoughts and apple pies, turning John's forbidden outing into a much larger problem for everyone around him.

The Custard Kid dreams of reaching Hollywood and becoming a stunt performer in silent movies. Accused of kidnapping Calamity Kate in Deadwood, he faces a serious obstacle before he can begin the film career he wants.

Billy investigates the well in his garden and meets an unusual new friend with extraordinary powers. Their friendship soon faces a challenge from the villainous Quintus Quigley, whom the pair must find a way to outwit.

Two short stories follow disturbing encounters with crime. The title story centers on a murderer, while Broken Window concerns a small-time criminal; both use simple language to bring a horror element into their bleak situations.

Accused of witchcraft and pursued by a mob, Ellie Nash escapes five hundred years into the future. With modern girl Sharon's help, she tries to understand the time jump and find a way back to her own world.

Skinny the skeleton grows tired of being handled by hospital doctors and nurses and leaves to find another home. His search takes him into town, where an independently wandering skeleton creates some unexpected practical problems.

A villain sends dreams through television sets as part of a plan to control the world. Alberta remains unaffected because she has no television, leaving her and Tommy to discover how to stop the dream seller.

Molly and Wilkin T. Wilkins seek Batwing Castle's treasure on a rare night when a full moon coincides with Friday the thirteenth. Vampires, ghosts, and a trap threaten to keep the treasure hunters inside forever.

Two young boys visit a deserted cinema and find themselves entering the world of the Wild West. What begins as a trip to an empty picture house becomes an adventure inside an unexpected western setting.

This illustrated collection brings together Christmas jokes, riddles, and rhymes for young readers. Father Christmas provides the seasonal theme, with short pieces of wordplay and comic material designed to be read individually or shared aloud.

This illustrated volume combines Father Christmas' Joke Book with The Great Father Christmas Robbery. Christmas jokes, riddles, and rhymes sit alongside a comic story featuring a suspicious Santa, bringing several forms of seasonal humor into one book.

Neria helps her father make mummies in ancient Egypt's House of Death. When she's ordered to mummify the dead pharaoh's cat, she must find a way to save the animal without being caught and punished.

Sally Starr and the Cactus Kid cross the Parcho Desert in search of Native American treasure. The Kid boasts of being the toughest cowboy alive, but Sally's quick thinking proves essential when their journey brings difficulties.

Jamie and Trish team up for a school project and uncover a mystery involving a lost fortune. Their research leads toward hidden treasure, drawing the pair into more than the ordinary assignment they expected to complete.

A suspicious Santa draws Holmes and Watson into a Christmas investigation. The pair follow a Father Christmas who appears to be causing trouble, combining a seasonal mystery with jokes and wordplay as they pursue him.

Sharon expects a dull Christmas lunch until she opens a cracker and encounters magic. Genies, wishes, unpleasant neighbors, and a strange place called the Joke Factory turn her ordinary holiday meal into a complicated adventure.

Graham begins his first theatre job among experimental actors in foggy Newcastle. When his landlady's daughter is found dead, the unsettling atmosphere becomes a real murder mystery, bringing danger into his introduction to professional acting.

Accounts of alleged monster encounters range from Spring-heeled Jack and mysterious wild men to vampires and werewolves. Fact files accompany the stories, giving readers additional information to consider as they decide how convincing the claims are.

A humorous introduction to ancient Egypt explores pharaohs, mummies, slaves, grooming, food, and royal customs. Co-written by Terry Deary and Peter Hepplewhite, it mixes historical facts with recipes, activities, and step-by-step prompts about Egyptian life.

An illustrated guide to Tudor England examines Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, royal marriages, food, insults, executions, and torture. It combines accounts of court life and ordinary people with quizzes and games that emphasize the period’s grimmer details.

These disturbing accounts draw on events people have claimed were real, including killings, unexplained disappearances, and supposed mummy curses. Narratives and accompanying facts invite readers to consider possible explanations for stories presented as more than ordinary fictional horror.

A comic survey of ancient Rome covers its empire, army, religion, medicine, myths, and everyday habits. Readers encounter ruthless rule and grisly punishments alongside details about soldiers’ clothing, dining customs, and Roman methods of fortune-telling.

This illustrated look at Victorian Britain peers behind its respectable image to examine public sanitation, child life, medicine, crime, death, and social inequality. Cartoons, quizzes, and activities frame the era’s grim and bizarre realities for younger readers.

This collection recounts crimes involving pirates, highwaymen, kidnappers, and other lawbreakers. Episodes featuring Ned Kelly, Dick Turpin, and the Great Train Robbers explore daring schemes and the pursuit of criminals, bringing historical cases into narrative form.

A fact-filled account of the Viking world follows seafaring raiders, their gods, ships, battles, and encounters with Saxon England. It also looks at rulers, warriors, and enslaved people, emphasizing the violence and odd customs behind familiar Viking legends.

Deary explores the strange, unpleasant, and sometimes gruesome details of British royal history. Stories about kings and queens combine cartoons with questions about their behavior, ailments, reputations, and deaths, including rumors surrounding King John and Queen Anne.

A humorous tour of ancient Greek life explores childhood, medicine, inventions, religion, and the Olympic Games. Alongside serious history, the book spotlights stranger customs and unpleasant details that make the ancient world feel lively and unfamiliar.

These mystery stories draw on reports that people have claimed were true. Accompanying fact files offer evidence and possible explanations, encouraging young readers to weigh the accounts and decide whether the additional information resolves their doubts.

These ghost stories draw on accounts that people have claimed are true. The collection follows reported supernatural encounters, letting young readers explore unsettling experiences without treating every witness's explanation as an established fact.

This collection retells reported experiences of people who survived frightening situations. Its stories focus on encounters with death, suffering and danger, presenting accounts their tellers claimed were true rather than a set of invented horror tales.

Narrative and fact files explore questions about the historical Joan of Arc. This illustrated History Mystery book combines storytelling with supporting information, inviting young readers to investigate who she was and consider the evidence behind her story.

Nine tales recount alleged hauntings, from strange stones on an Australian farm to a restless mummy. Case files accompany the narratives, presenting details and possible explanations so readers can judge the supernatural claims for themselves.

Eight shark stories combine encounters involving danger and courage with factual information about the animals. Deary examines both frightening attacks and unexpected rescues, inviting readers to reconsider sharks' reputation and the relationship between sharks and people.

Trainee FBI agent John Smith is assigned to reopen the Roswell case, where a mysterious object crashed in 1947. A fictional investigation combines with fact files and witness material, leaving readers to assess competing explanations.

Terry Deary examines the life and times of the Venerable Bede, the Anglo-Saxon monk and historian. This historical account places its subject in the world of the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Two Americans are imprisoned for selling intelligence secrets to the Russians. Fellow inmate Larry Holtz helps them escape, only to find himself in trouble; the fictional account is accompanied by files for readers to examine.

This interactive diary invites readers to fill in their own dates while discovering a strange or gruesome event associated with every day of the year. Historical facts and Martin Brown’s illustrations turn a personal journal into a daily history activity.

This illustrated investigation explores claims that Apollo 11 encountered alien spacecraft near the Moon. It considers whether the astronauts might have met earlier visitors, presenting the alleged encounter as a mystery for readers to assess.

A compact, 16-card novelty book in the Horrible Histories range, credited to Terry Deary. It uses a postcard-book format rather than the series’ conventional full-length history-book format.

A mysterious object crashes in the New Mexico desert, prompting competing explanations. This Classified investigation explores the Roswell incident and asks whether the wreckage suggests an alien spacecraft or a secret military experiment.

Nancy Clogg and her Grott Street Gang intimidate the pupils of Duckpool Primary School. Now the gang plans revenge against the feared Miss Fitt, launching a dangerous scheme that pits the troublemakers against their teacher.

In 1348, Geoffrey Copton returns to England from fighting in France just as the Black Death approaches. When he and his friend Meg uncover a scheme to rob and murder an innocent man, they must try to stop it.

Scientist Vladimir Alexandrov disappears while attending a conference in Spain. A fictional young KGB officer investigates possible links to his nuclear-winter research, with accompanying files inviting readers to consider the evidence surrounding the real disappearance.

Young computer expert Alice Henreid is questioned about her grandfather's involvement in a supposed wartime experiment that made a ship invisible. Her fictional investigation combines science explanations with documents about the alleged Philadelphia Experiment.

This account combines historical facts with storytelling to explore the Gunpowder Plot. It looks behind the familiar story of Guy Fawkes, turning the conspiracy into a historical mystery for young readers to investigate.

Eight accounts explore real detective investigations, from jewel thieves to blackmail and an unusual murder clue. Information about fingerprints, police records and the Flying Squad explains some of the methods used to solve crimes.

Secret agents visit young computer hacker Alice Henreid before dawn to ask about her grandfather's wartime work. The fictional mystery explores the alleged Philadelphia Experiment, then presents dossier-style material for readers to examine.

Historical information and fictional storytelling explore the murder of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe. The book turns his death into an investigation, encouraging young readers to consider what the facts reveal about the mystery.

This Victorian mystery mixes storytelling with historical information about the world of Queen Victoria. Underworld crime, robbery and revolution form the backdrop to a story that introduces young readers to threats beneath the period's public respectability.

This illustrated history traces the English language through strange facts, cartoons and quizzes. Chapters explore figures of speech, grammar and jargon, showing how word meanings and usage have changed while inviting readers to test their knowledge.

A cartoon-illustrated guide to Aztec society examines religion, warfare, food, games, and the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. Terry Deary uses unsettling anecdotes and comic facts to introduce young readers to the civilization’s everyday life and rituals.

This children's history follows Scotland from the Dark Ages to the twentieth century. Battles and the Scots' struggles provide the focus, with the Horrible Histories approach using humor to introduce violent episodes from the country's past.

This illustrated history explores medieval knights, castles and the people who kept them running. Accounts of weapons, dungeons, crusaders and unpleasant sanitation reveal what life was like beyond the familiar image of shining armor.

These stories introduce explorers including Pytheas, Marco Polo and Florence Baker. Their journeys bring danger, disputed claims and encounters far from home, showing young readers some of the unsettling experiences behind famous voyages and expeditions.

This illustrated collection introduces inventors including Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci and Joseph Lister. Stories about their work highlight devices, ideas and medical practice, giving young readers a humorous route into the lives behind major innovations.

This guide explores British politics through prime ministers, voters, manifestos and election campaigns. It also follows a prospective candidate, explaining what becoming an MP involves while using humorous accounts to make political history more approachable.

These stories explore the lives and ideas of Aristotle, Roger Bacon and John Dee. The collection introduces young readers to science across different periods, including beliefs and experiments that can look strange from a modern perspective.

This history of the Celtic world introduces warrior customs, religious practices, games, funerals, saints, and Druids. It examines the people often known for resisting Rome while using strange and grisly details to illuminate daily life and belief.

A stranger seeking help draws Will Marsden and his grandfather into a journey north to Scotland. Family stories of Flodden accompany their travels, while serving girl Meg recognizes dangers the eager adventurers have overlooked.

Will Marsden is training to become a knight when a visitor arrives with letters from Queen Elizabeth to Scotland's king. A body found in the woods sends Will and serving girl Meg searching for a murderer.

This collection examines reports of alien abductions, strange rescues and the Roswell crash. The stories present claimed encounters with visitors from space, inviting young readers to weigh the accounts and decide what they find convincing.

Stories about Seneca, Bede and Charles Dickens introduce writers from different historical periods. Their lives and work bring together violent drama, accounts of battles and plagues, and fiction exposing cruel schools and workhouses.

Ten Greek legends receive humorous retellings that emphasize monsters and danger. Stories involving Odysseus and Medusa bring the unsettling side of ancient myths to young readers, using jokes alongside the heroes' encounters with frightening creatures.

Ten Shakespeare plays receive humorous retellings, including Macbeth, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. Facts about actors, audiences, theatre and Shakespeare's life accompany the stories, with quizzes and wordplay helping young readers explore the plays.

Susie and Sally Spark oppose Councillor Tripwell's plans to dig up a graveyard and fill in a pond. With their grandmother's help, they use scientific experiments in a comic adventure about protecting their local environment.

The Spark children look after their grandmother and baby sibling while an axe-wielding stranger causes alarm and a royal visit approaches. Their comic adventure incorporates experiments that show how substances change.

Boozle faces removal by dog wardens after being accused of belonging to a dangerous breed. The Spark family tries to prove otherwise, using facts and experiments about classification and patterns to help save their dog.

Simon and Sam Spark investigate disappearing jelly babies while a suspicious stranger waits outside their school. Experiments about electricity become part of their detective work, combining the mystery with science activities for readers.

The Spark siblings argue about Earth's shape before a disastrous boat trip sends them into space, pursued by Master Minde. Their adventure introduces facts about the Sun, Moon and Earth alongside practical science experiments.

Real espionage cases reveal how spies use codes, disguises and deception. Stories range from Alexander the Great spying on his army to a German agent caught in England, with fact files explaining the people and methods involved.

These dramatized accounts explore warfare through battles, betrayal and survival, both on the battlefield and beyond it. Stories include Roman soldiers, the struggle for American independence and a football match that briefly interrupted the First World War.

Originally published as Even More Terrible Tudors, this companion to Terrible Tudors revisits Tudor England through its rulers and subjects. It covers Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I, alongside fairs, punishments, and royal intrigue.

The Marsden family risks losing its home unless it can pay its debts. Will, his father and their serving girl set sail for London with a cargo of coal, beginning an adventure in Elizabethan England.

A stolen silver cup leaves serving girl Meg facing execution unless she spies on her friends. Will Marsden tries to save her as his mother's memories of spying on Mary Queen of Scots echo their dilemma.

Ten Shakespeare plays are retold for children through jokes, unusual viewpoints and varied formats. Hamlet, King Lear and A Midsummer Night's Dream appear alongside information about Shakespeare's life and the theater of his time.

Greek myths become diaries, police reports, poems and sketches in these humorous retellings for children. Gods, heroes and monsters share the pages with quizzes and explanations of words that still carry traces of ancient mythology.

This collection brings together accounts of monsters, ghosts and disturbing mysteries. Alongside the stories, readers can consider the available facts and decide how much they believe about the strange events and sightings people have reported.

Accounts of real spies explore secret equipment, codes, disguises and betrayal. From an emperor watching his own army to an agent honored by the country he deceived, the stories examine how international espionage actually operates.

Stories of warfare follow people caught in battles, massacres and acts of betrayal across history. Accounts from land, sea and the trenches explore survival and sacrifice, including enemies who paused fighting for a football match.

With Motion Man loose in Duckpool, Susie Spark is sent to stay with Grandpa Grimlight for safety. Exploring the abandoned fairground behind his house brings unexpected trouble, while the story introduces experiments about forces and motion.

Mr. and Mrs. Rundle buy a haunted wardrobe, hoping a resident ghost will attract visitors to their inn. Their business plan brings unexpected complications in a comic ghost story built around the mysterious piece of furniture.

These playful retellings introduce Greek mythology through unusual formats, including a police investigation into Oedipus and a performance of the Trojan War. Gods, heroes and monsters appear alongside jokes and opportunities for readers to participate.

Greek legends are retold through poems, letters, diaries, police reports and comic scenes. Stories about gods and heroes accompany lists of mythical monsters, language facts and quizzes, introducing ancient mythology through a variety of playful perspectives.

Mysterious activity appears in the night sky over Duckpool as the science-loving Spark family investigates. The adventure weaves experiments into its story, giving children practical ways to explore science while following the family's unusual experiences.

A kidnapped orphan, a giant, a dog called Boozle and a suspicious private detective give the Spark family a difficult mystery. Sam turns to magnetism for help, with practical experiments woven into the adventure.

This illustrated history explores rebellions and revolutions from ancient times onward. Accounts of the French Revolution's guillotine and leaders such as Leon Trotsky accompany a look at how people organize uprisings and challenge those in power.

Shakespeare's familiar plots are recast through comic viewpoints, mysteries and scenes readers can perform. Ten plays, including Hamlet and King Lear, introduce young readers to the stories, with background on their author and his theater.

A vanished village, murders and other disturbing events form a collection of allegedly true horror stories. Each account comes with a fact file, inviting readers to examine the evidence and decide which explanations they find convincing.

A two-books-in-one historical collection comparing life in Georgian and Victorian Britain. It explores social conditions from wealthy households to poverty, mines, and schools, with activities such as recipes, games, quizzes, and classroom tests.