Quotes from Terry Deary

The only politician ever to have entered parliament with honourable intentions, was Guy Fawkes.

Glories, like glow-worms, afar off shine bright, But look'd too near have neither heat nor light.' John Webster (c.1580–1634), English Jacobean dramatist

Black Will, Shagbag.

I'm not a historian, and I wouldn't want to be. I want to change the world. Attack the elite. Overturn the hierarchy. Look at my stories and you'll notice that the villains are always, always, those in power. The heroes are the little people. I hate the establishment. Always have, always will.

The only politician ever to have entered parliament with honourable intentions, was Guy Fawkes.

The 'Declaration of Independence' begins: 'All men are created equal'. What they really meant was 'All men are created equal – unless they happen to be Indian, black or female'!)

Death, as well as fortune, is rather fond of the brave.

The oldest written poem was by the Greek, Homer. His poem, The Iliad, tells the story of the siege of Troy, a story of the heroes who fought to the death to get Helen back to her hubby, King Menelaus.

Greeks heard the poems read on stage while a group of dancers performed. Then a clever poet called Aeschylus came along and had a great idea. He put a second reader on stage. Now you had a 'play' –the first drama in the world.

After they had lost the war with Sparta the Athenians looked for someone to blame. They blamed the old teacher, Socrates. Being a rather groovy guy, he was always hanging around with young people, telling them not to believe in the old gods.

then forcing his wife to eat the roasted flesh! Amazingly, two enemies, an English

There is proof that these early kings were taller and had much larger heads than the peasants of Egypt!

They also thought there were spirits called 'daimons' around. Some were good and protected you; some were evil and could lead you into wickedness.

The Egyptians treated her like a pharaoh even though she was from a Greek family and a woman. She worshipped the gods of Egypt.

Sometimes an event happens that is so great the world is never the same again after it. In the twentieth century one of the greatest of those events is World War I – fought against Germany from 1914 till 1918. Everyone is in it together. Upper classes and lower classes, women as well as men. This 'mixing' has never happened before and it will change the way the classes look at each other

But Djoser was king of South Egypt and North Egypt. To keep the people in both parts of the country happy he had to be buried in two different tombs. His body was entombed in the north, and his canopic jars had their own temple 100 metres to the south.

First the Duke of Cumberland's Redcoats hunted down the clansmen who had escaped from Culloden. Prisoners were treated so badly that they died in their hundreds. The survivors were sent to the American plantations as slave labour.

Why were kings cross? Maybe their trains were late! Some say warrior Queen Boudica was buried under platform 8.

Life is a road... a wild and wearying road... and I've reached the end. Death is like an old friend, waiting at the end, to wrap me in his arms.

CCC wanted everyone to believe that he had done what he set out to do – sailed west to find Japan in the east. He made his men swear an oath…

Doctor Philip

Yet the Romans did something the heart-ripping Aztecs and the Spanish burners didn't do … they killed people for fun! The Romans made murder into a sport. They built wonderful buildings like the Colosseum, filled them with happy Romans and then massacred thousands of people and animals for entertainment.

This is a bit like bribing the other team's best players to leave the pitch as soon as you start the match! Not much of a game!)

Lincoln died from a bullet to the head while he sat next to his wife in the Ford Theatre. Kennedy died from a bullet to the head while he sat next to his wife in a Ford car.