• Born 3rd January 1946• British children's author of over

200 books• selling over 25 million copies in

over 40 languages• Since 1994 he has been one of

Britain's best-selling authors. • In 2012 he was the tenth most-

borrowed author in British libraries• Voted Outstanding Children's Non-

Fiction Author Of The 20th Century by Books for Keeps magazine.

Deary was born in Sunderland. His father Bill owned a butcher's shop

in Hendon, a poverty stricken area of the city and his mother Freda was the manageress of a clothing shop.

Deary went to a Grammar School and intensely disliked his school experience, particularly the style of teaching he received.

He worked as a butcher's boy, helping in the shop from the age of three.

He joined the electricity board as a management trainee when he was 18.

Then went to a drama company in 1972 as an actor bringing theatre to children.

He qualified as a teacher and taught drama.

He began writing in 1976, turning full-time in 1994, with the publication of the Horrible Histories series.

The Horrible Histories series of books are popular among children for their disgusting details, gory information and humorous pictures and among adults for getting children interested in history.

Books in the series have been widely translated into other languages.

A cartoon series has been made of his books and was shown on CiTV in 2002. The Horrible Histories live action comedy sketch show of the same name has been shown on CBBC since 2009. Deary himself has played some parts.

His charity work includes being patron of a Homeless Charity and the Grace House Children's Hospice appeal. 

In 2011 he ran the length of Hadrian’s Wall in 6 days and ended with the Great North Run, to make a total of 101 miles. That effort raised £8000 for a children’s charity. 

Did you always love history when you were young?

I hated history. History was the most boring subject in the universe, because the teacher had some notes and he had learned these at college 30 years ago. And he read them to us and we copied them down word for word. It was about as exciting as a hibernating tortoise.

There were no stories or exciting adventures. Or bits about what it was really like to live in the past.

So when I wrote Horrible Histories they were anti-school. They were the things they don't tell you in school or the things that my teacher didn't tell me.

Sometimes children read my books and they get all excited about history and they go to school saying history is their favourite subject. Don't blame me!!!

Deary received an Honarary Doctorate of Education from the University of Sunderland in 2000.

In 2011, he retired from writing children's books after 35 years.

Terry Deary has called to "ban Horrible Histories from schools", because "classrooms take all the fun out of his stories!!

Series Horrible Histories Truly Terrible Tales Master Crook’ Crime Academy Tudor Chronicles (also known as Tudor Terror) Tudor Tales Roman Tales Egyptian Tales The Fire Thief The Knowledge Pirate Tales True Stories Time Detectives The Spark Files

Spooks (1997) Hope Street (1980) Ghost For Sale (2001) The Treasure Of Crazy Horse (2001) The Custard Kid (2001) The Wishing Well Ghost (2002) Into The Lion's Den (2002) Footsteps In The Fog (2003) The Boy Who Haunted Himself (2004) The Last Viking (2005) Great big Father Christmas joke book

Vicious Viking Jokes;

I’ve become a vegetarianBut I just saw you eat that vikingHe was a swede!

Teacher : The Vikings used to eat whale meat and blubber

Student : If I had to eat whale meat I’d blubber too!!

Born 23 October 1974 – Lusk Co. Dublin

He is an Irish author and screenwriter, best known for the Skulduggery Pleasant series

He attended Drogheda Grammer School Briefly studied animation at Ballyfermot

College He has a black belt in karate Prior to his contract with Harper Collins,

he worked on his parents' vegetable farm

Landy has written two screenplays that have been made into films, Dead Bodies and Boy Eats Girl

Landy was nominated for an IFTA for Best Script

Frustrated with the process of filmmaking, Landy moved on to writing the Skulduggery Pleasant Series

The series was published by Harper Collins who paid £1.8 million for the publishing rights

In 2007, he signed a deal with Warner Bros. worth $1 million for the rights to adapt his Skulduggery Pleasant series

However, his script was constantly rewritten and Landy, unhappy with the results, bought back the rights

He is currently working on a script with the producers of Clash of the Titans

Landy is also planning a second series due September 2015.

Derek said that the book will have some of the same elements as the Skulduggery Pleasant series but will also have horror and it will be for a little older age group.

In an interview with elev8 he said it will be a trilogy about a 16 year old girl who is being chased across America by a pack of Demons

Skulduggery Pleasant (2007) Playing With Fire (2008) The Faceless Ones (2009) Dark Days (2010) Mortal Coil (2010) Death Bringer (2011) The End of the World (2012) Kingdom of the Wicked(2012)