What we have been reading

Sunday, January 05, 2003

Horrible Histories !!

I don't know if anyone has seen them, but the local TV here in the UK have been showing an advert for a collection of magazines based on the Horrible Histories Books.

These books have the by-line of telling the more gruesome and gory side of history, that the "proper" books don't tell.

Our family have always had an interest in History. I , for one, have a major interest in , for some reason I have never really understood, the First World War. Maybe it has something to do with trying to understand the horror - the waste of life.

I recommend anyone interested in this period of history to read any of the series of books written by Lyn McDonald. Her basis of writing was to use the letters and personal retellings from the Soldiers at the front - what they had to put with, how they felt - it certainly gave me a different view on what happened in France - and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, let alone try and picture most of the male members of anyone's family suffering those conditions.

Anyway back to the main thread of the posting. Liam, and to some extent Laura, have inherited, if that's the way to put it, mine and Cathy's interest in History. As you can probably guess I'm more the "why's and where fore's" person, whilst Cathy (and Liam) have some interest in the "why" and have more interest in the "what". That is they like to see the Castles', the houses, the places , and in Liam's case, the objects of History ( mind you I do Like the Tanks, the uniforms and the minutia of history).

Anyway - we are drifting again. We have always encouraged the Kids to look at History and hopefully to some extent, learn for it. But as Liam is Dyslexic, we have had problems with him reading about History, and as part of the encouragement process we brought him some of the "Horrible Histories" books (you know what young lads are like - they always seem to be attracted to the more disgusting side of life - nose picking competitions, the "I've collected the largest amount of ear wax out of one ear" competition) but , apart from a cursory glance thorough to, sort of, make sure they were appropriate reading but we never really took the time to look at them "properly".

Anyway, Liam and Laura both asked if they could have the magazine. At 99p for the first issue - I couldn't see the harm, so off to the Newsagent we went.

I have since read that magazine - and it is quite entertaining, not really what I was expecting in someway's. If you want "serious" history - forget it, but if you want to know what else went on - well that's different. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the series brings. This week has been "Rotten Romans" and the next is "Terrible Tudors" ( and I already know that Henry VIII was a bit of a "Rotter") so it should be good