Horrible Histories creator Deary pens story of Britain's past for Transworld 

Transworld has acquired a new history of Britain "that is emphatically not for children" by Horrible Histories author Terry Deary. 

Editorial director Alex Christofi bought world all-languages rights in A History of Britain in Ten Enemies in an exclusive submission from Oli Munson at A M Heath. It will be published by the Bantam imprint in autumn 2024.  

The publisher said that in the single-volume history of Britain, Deary will argue that nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make. Boudicca would be forgotten if it weren’t for the Romans, Elizabeth I a minor royal without the Spanish Armada, "Churchill an opposition windbag without Germany and Thatcher remembered mainly as a ’milk-snatcher’ if it weren’t for the Argentines. Britain and the British have a proud history of choosing their enemies; in fact, for centuries at a time, it’s been the only thing we can all agree on". 

Deary’s Scholastic-published Horrible Histories series has shifted £33.8m through Nielsen BookScan UK, making him one of Britain’s biggest-selling non-fiction authors for children since records began. It has been published in more than 40 languages and adapted into both animated and live-action television shows.   

Christofi said: “What a privilege, as one of countless people who owe their love of reading to the Horrible Histories, to be publishing Terry’s adult history as a grown-up. He is a wonderful storyteller and a brilliantly anti-establishment historian. A History of Britain in Ten Enemies will give him an opportunity to tell it like it is.”