Terry Deary’s newest book tells the story of rebellions throughout history – but you wouldn’t know from his latest lecture. In a 45 minute span Deary spins from tangent to tangent, only signposting the chapters of his speech when referring to a piece of crumpled paper.
Beginning with an impressive relay of his various accomplishments by Professor of Irish History Caoimhe Nic Dhaidheid, Deary lamented how he is now so old he “writes history from memory”. Indeed his career is lengthy, spanning 342 books published in 45 languages, with over 38 million copies sold. His newest book, targeted towards adults, is Revolting: a riotous history of rebellions and revolutions, which Deary described as setting out reasons to revolt, and asking the audience what it would take for them to take those same steps. This was a refrain he repeated many times throughout the talk, seemingly when he wasn’t really sure what to say next.
Suddenly his rambling turned into an introduction of the first topic of his book: slavery. He told the story of the Roman Empire, and how even though they are posited as the most advanced and successful empires, they were truthfully “one of the most evil”. Deary highlighted just how much of the nation was built on the backs of slaves killed after just two or three years in service, stressing how when they had nothing to lose, rebellion was their only hope. This story was then reflected in stories of slaves in more modern history too: for example, the slave ship The Zong, who arrived at port with less than half their original number of slaves after they threw them overboard to reduce the use of supplies. These tales of brutality were emphasised by Deary’s genuine rage at the inhumane treatment of these people, an emotion that carried a lot of the more interesting and moving sections of the show.
Deary then moved to focus on the role of women and marginalised people in historical campaigns, specifically for the abolition of the slave trade. He strongly advocated for the unsaid names who helped the figures of William Wilberforce and others who are credited with ending the slave trade. He then came out with a strange and anachronistic proclamation, perhaps an attempt to appeal to a pop culture reference: if he had a hat like Donald Trump’s MAGA hat, he would have one that said WAAH – standing for “we are all human”. This garnered huge applause from the crowd, but I was left confused: how would a trite statement like that cause people to recognise the unseen heroes of history? And why would you need it on a hat?
Ultimately a problem I found with the piece as a whole was its two-dimensional nature. The history we were told about felt like common knowledge, even to me as someone who hasn’t studied history, or even really engaged in much historical material at all. His proclamations about the role of women and minorities in their own liberation felt inconsequential and were mostly unnamed mentions of theoretical actions they might have taken which were maybe overwritten. He briefly touched on Boudica and her rage and revenge after being raped by the Romans, but only to suggest she went too far. The talk definitely became more rushed towards the end, touching on the role of religion in rebellions and then the luddites, likening their protest to the growing influence of AI. His final exposition on the Irish was promptly cut off as he ran out of time, furthering my suspicion that at the very least, he was unprepared for this talk.
The Q&A at the end was welcomed by the audience, and his answers to questions usually made their way to the point, albeit after quite a while. It was certainly interesting to hear him discuss how he approaches adult books – still infused with his characteristic humour, but approaching history without any shield. His willingness to meet the truth head on certainly made for a stirring conclusion as he dammed the education system and the government, who in his words “will do anything within their power to crush a revolt”, using schools as “a limb of the establishment”. All in all, his lecture felt like an unsure walk-through of history’s most familiar events, but with some moments that did inspire humour and emotion.
