How Britain got lucky with its choice of enemies – with Horrible Histories creator Terry Deary

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forget the storybook version of British history. Churchill without Hitler would be a forgotten windbag with a record of failure. Elizabeth I and Francis Drake didn’t defeat the Spanish – bad luck and bad weather sank the Armada. And Boudicca would be remembered as a sadistic tyrant if not for the Romans. Creator of the multi-million-selling kids’ series Horrible Histories Terry Deary brings his irreverent, fact-packed style to adult readers with A History of Britain in Ten Enemies. He tells Andrew Harrison why history isn’t what it used to be. • Buy A History of Britain in Ten Enemies through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Support us on Patreon for early episodes and more. • We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to indeed.com/bunker to get your £100 sponsored credit. Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Produced by Liam Tait. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:47.5	Amazon offers term time working to their employees, like Anton, who's home to look after his daughters during their holidays.
0:56.5	Hello!
0:57.5	To him, this is the best sound in the world.
1:00.0	Daddy!
1:03.0	Actually, maybe that's the best sound of all.
1:07.0	Now that's term time working.
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1:20.9	Hello and welcome back to the bunker, your bite-sized daily ration of news, politics, culture and today, history.
1:31.6	I'm Andrew Harrison.
1:33.0	History is about the heroes.
1:34.5	That's the classic take, the traditional idea that it is the deeds of great men and women that shape the world.
	...

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