I loved the Horrible Histories when I was a kid. In fact, I was reading them long past the age they were aimed at. However, coming back to them as an adult what really stands out to me is that Deary doesn't cite any of his sources. I have no idea if any of what he writes in these books is true or where he got his information, so they are pretty useless as educational tools. I guess they are meant to be a jumping off point to get kids interested in history in the first place. All of that sounds very general, but I don't really have anything to say about this book in specific even though I just read it. Sure, some of the stories in it were interesting and I would like to know more, but since I don't know where any of this information came from, I can't. Great for kids, don't revisit as an adult.

Going through all of the details of the First World War is always a bit of a trial when you’re in school so actually having something that puts it into easy to understand terms as well as making sure you don’t get too bogged down by dates and names is really really important if you want the information to stick for longer than the time it takes to actually read the book.

I think because there are so many major players in WWI, it becomes more and more difficult to follow along with some of the facts and then you end up not enjoying what you’re reading or actually taking anything from it at all.

One of the things I have always appreciated about the HH books is that there is no judgement when there is a discussion about war. Especially for something like WWI or WWII, where there is a lot that you could pin blame on. So I appreciate that there is a real effort not to do that here and instead just present the facts and allow the reader to come to their own conclusions.