Terry Deary

His dad (Billy) worked as a butcher in Hendon, Sunderland, and his mom (Freda) worked managing a clothing shop. As a child, Terry worked for many years in his dad's butcher shop. It was better than going to school, where he was bullied, beaten, and abused by the loathsome instructors.

The best place to start is the Egyptian Tales series, the earliest of Terry Deary's multi-book series: it opens with The Magic And The Mummy (1990) and runs to 5 books across 1990–2004, ending with The Phantom of the Nile (2004). Terry Deary's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Terry Deary has 364 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1977 and 2026. 310 of them belong to 41 named series — the largest being the Horrible Histories series with 77 books — and 54 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Terry Deary's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Ganders (1988–1989, 2 books), Comet (1988, 1 book) and Egyptian Tales (1990–2004, 5 books), plus 38 more.

This guide splits Terry Deary's 364 books into 41 named series and 54 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Horrible Histories (77 books, 1993–2026); Flashbacks (30 books, 1998–2020); True Stories (16 books, 1992–2012); Horrible Histories Specials (15 books, 1995–2020); Horrible Histories (Non-Fiction) (11 books, 2004–2015), plus 36 further series.