A History Of Terry In Ten Anecdotes: Review Of Terry Deary At The Durham Book Festival

Sunderland-born author, Terry Deary, appeared at Durham Book Festival on Saturday, 12 October, to discuss his first history book for adults, A History of Britain in Ten Enemies (available now). From the Ancient Romans to the Nazis, this new book explores the enemies that define a nation.

Humble about his talents, and firm in his beliefs, Deary describes himself as “not a successful author, but a failed country and western singer”. In this event, he went from discussing his youthful aspirations in showbiz and his early successes with writing, to giving glimpses into how he deconstructs the fairytales of Great Britain’s greatness in his new book, with entertaining anecdotes throughout.

Deary told the audience, “I’ve always said I’m not a historian, which is a great advantage, but my publishers didn’t like that. So now I say I’m not an academic historian.” He noted that his true interest was not in historical dates and the names of kings and queens, but in people. He prefers to shine a spotlight on lesser-known people, and to share lesser-known facts about well-known people. He made a point of highlighting fellow Mackem, and Hero of Camperdown, Jack Crawford, whose achievements have long been overlooked.

Great chemistry with fellow Monkwearmouth alumni and former BBC Look North presenter, Jeff Brown (who chaired the discussion), gave the event the casual feeling of a chat in the pub, with five hundred or so of Deary’s mates engrossed in his stories.

It was fascinating to hear how he discovered his talent for writing through his time at a Breconshire theatre company, and found success with the original play he was left to come up with over a school summer holiday: The Custard Kid.

On the inspiration for his latest book, Deary recalled a football game from his childhood in which he scored seven goals, thrashing his opponents so badly that the referee was forced to call the game early. He admitted he may not have been a child football prodigy, but rather, the opposing team was rubbish. This conclusion is much like the one he came to when delving into Britain’s history of great victories.

One observation he drew the audience’s attention to, with palpable dismay in light of recent hysteria across the pond regarding “manufactured tornadoes”, is that those who shout their lies the loudest and most frequently are frighteningly capable of having those lies believed. And this is something he tackles through A History of Britain in Ten Enemies.

Finally, Deary teased his upcoming murder mystery set in Sunderland, 1973, which, he notes, amusingly qualifies for history murder mystery, being more than fifty years ago. At a book signing decades ago, he said, someone joked, “Terry is so old he writes history from memory.” He refers to this now as prophecy, adding, “Now I really am writing history from memory.”

When asked for his thoughts at the book signing after the event, Deary said, “What an amazing crowd; they actually laughed at my jokes!”