A History of Britain in Ten Enemies by Terry Deary

Book Review Nov 14, 2024

My review

3/5 stars

As a history-loving child, I was a huge fan of the Horrible Histories series. This has evolved into a love of sharing that with my child via reading them to him and watching the tv series on iPlayer. Reading that the author of those books had written a history book for adults got me very excited.

The format of this book puts a really fresh perspective on history by changing the traditional chronological timeline up and instead addressing things via each country that we have been at war with multiple times as a nation. The ten countries that were looked at were:

Italy
Saxony
Scandinavia
France
Spain
The Dutch Empire
United States
Russia
Ireland
Germany

Some of these countries were front-and-centre in my brain when I thought of Britain's enemies, but others (such as The Dutch Empire) caught me off guard and made me think. This grouping format really hammered home the point that history repeats itself, as our relationships with each of these enemies has been a series of repeated disagreements throughout history.

As expected from this author, the writing style was very focused on humour and making light of some of the darker aspects of history. It was littered in amongst all the actual facts with such ease that it was actually easy to miss at times. While I found myself laughing at some of the comments, I found myself somewhat disappointed in the amount of them. I understand that the author was going for a more adult-vibe, but a lot of people would have come to this book because of the Horrible Histories series and I feel he toned it down just a bit too much from that starting point for me.

In terms of the actual content, I found myself learning a little more than I knew, but this is definitely better for entry-level history readers, as I felt this was just telling me loads of things I had already read in a slightly funnier tone.

A very easy, fun read but didn't quite meet the fairly high expectations I had for it.

Book blurb

Ah, Britain. So special. The greatest nation on earth, some say. And we did it all on our own. Didn’t we?

As it happens Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. As Horrible Histories author Terry Deary argues, nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make.

- Elizabeth I would count as a minor royal without the Spanish Armada
- Without the Nazis, Churchill would be remembered as an opposition windbag
- The surprisingly sadistic Boudica would be forgotten if it weren't for the Roman Ninth Legion

And after all, every nation sometimes needs a bit of unifying Blitz spirit (although in an ideal world, we wouldn’t have accidentally let Corporal Hitler go in the first place).

The British have a proud history of choosing their enemies, from the Romans to the Germans. You might even say those enemies made Britain what it is today...

A History of Britain in Ten Enemies is a witty, whistlestop tour of British history that will have you laughing as you find out what they didn't teach you in school.