True Stories Books In Order

Publication Order of True Stories Books

The True Stories series is a set of novels by Terry Deary real name William Terence Deary. He is a British author from Sunderland who now lives in Durham County in North East England. His father was a Hendon butcher while his mother managed a clothing shop in town. As a child, he worked in his father’s butcher shop for several years though he loved it better than school where he had to endure abuse, bullying and beatings from his loathsome teachers. In 1972 he joined the Theatre Powys in Mid-Wales, where he began a career as a professional actor. He went on to work in the art scene for several years as a theatre director, television presenter and drama teacher. Aside from working on TV and on stage, his biggest works include acting in the 2014 movie “Plan Z” and the 2010 film “Risen.” He still performs around Britain in a roadshow named “The Terry Deary History Roadshow” that entertains audiences with stories and song.

He began his literary career working with Theatre Powys and wrote several of the shows that the troupe performed. “The Custard Kid” was one of his most popular and successful shows, which he then made into a tour by the same name. Given that it was so popular and he had a lot of fun doing it, he transformed the tour into a collection of Theatre in Education projects. He also went on to convert the manuscript into a children’s novel titled “Custard Kid” that he published in 1977. However, his big break came with the “Horrible Histories” series which was known for its lavatorial and revolting historical facts. He wrote about things such as William the Conqueror’s bowels exploding at his funeral, the official bottom wipers of the pharaohs and the fact that the Victorians gave their children names such as Miss Farting Clark. One of the standout things in his work was his unshakeable antiestablishment perspectives. While he writes from history he says he never intended to be a historian but rather wanted to change the world by exposing the villainy of the elite. Over the course of more than four decades, he has written media, film, TV, audio, theatre and radio scripts and also designed museum and heritage exhibitions.

The “True Stories” series of novels are written as factual series about the happenings reported in the news or in folklore. Every book in the series is based on a different theme starting from monster stories in the debut followed by horror stories, crime stories among many others. This creates a raft of true stories that someone somewhere swears is a true recollection of happenings in a given period. Deary has also published books that have been a combination of themes from previously written novels. For instance, the 2002 published novel “True Detective Stories / True Spy Stories” is a combination of the themes of “True Spy Stories” from 1998 and “True Detective Stories” from 1996.

The “True Monster Stories” is the first of the “True Stories” series of novels by Terry Deary. It details bizarre but claimed to be factual encounters with a variety of paranormal beings. Deary divides the novels into eight sections ranging from stories about werewolves, wild men, vampires, Sasquatch / Bigfoot to sea creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster. Every section on the novel introduces that class of paranormal creatures and then goes into detail the encounters between humans and the monsters. Each story ends with a fact file. The fact files provide a brief exposition of the events in the stories as some kind of footnote before they got on to present related information that is supposedly derived from other events of a similar nature. The novel is written such that it lets the audience decide if they want to believe the stories as true or not.

“True Horror Stories” the second novel of the series continues with the theme of bizarre stories. However, this is not about paranormal creatures but rather about happenings. A whole village disappears into thin air, a girl Named Lizzie Borden kills her mother and father in cold blood and an Egyptian mummy unearthed after millennia results in a trail of disasters. There are also serial killers and kidnappers and body snatchers which make for quite interesting reads. They are an incredible and seemingly impossible set of stories but there is a witness somewhere that swears that they are authentic. Readers will love the suspenseful and nostalgic feelings that the novels evoke. While the veracity of some of the stories is in question, Deary writes gripping stories some of which are genuinely creepy that they speak to the genius of the man.

“True Crime stories” the third novel of the “True Stories” series is a collection of fascinating crime stories that are guaranteed to enthrall anyone who loves a good super sleuth. Terry Deary writes of all types of criminals and their crimes from kidnappers, to tricksters, highwaymen, and pirates that commit all manner of cruel crimes. These are real-life criminals and Terry writes of their exploits that make them notorious in the criminal underworld. In one of the stories, an infamous outlaw named Ned Kelly puts into motion and succeeds in staging a terrifying siege. But the law is determined to catch him this time and sends the police to hunt him down. Will he be brought to justice this time? In another story, the “Great Train Robbers” manage to pull off the boldest and boldest robbery of the century but did they cover their tracks as well as they thought they did? Another great story is that if Dick Turpin that partners up with another rogue who is being sought by the law. Just how long will they stay ahead of law enforcement? Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.