They have no relevance in the 21st century. They were a Victorian idea to get kids off the street. Who decided that putting 30 kids with only their age in common in a classroom with one teacher was the best way of educating? At my school there were 52 kids in the class and all I learned was how to pass the 11-plus. Testing is the death of education. Kids should leave school at 11 and go to work. Not down the mines or up chimneys, mind, but working with computers or something relevant. Everything I learned after 11 was a waste of time. Trigonometry, Boyle's law: it's never been of any use to me. They should have been teaching me the life skills I was going to need, such as building relationships, parenting and managing money. I didn't have a clue about any of these things at 18. Schools need to change." Deary has also called to "ban Horrible Histories from schools", because "classrooms take all the fun out of his stories". In 2013, Deary spoke out against public libraries, saying that they "have been around too long", are "no longer relevant" and have "had their day," and derided the Public Lending Right remuneration to authors for library loans. He argued: "we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers... We don't expect to go to a food library to be fed. The car industry would collapse if we went to car libraries for free use of Porsches... If I sold the book I'd get 30p per book. I get six grand, [when] I should be getting £180,000." Selected books Series Horrible Histories Truly Terrible Tales Master Crook’s Crime Academy Tudor Chronicles (also known as Tudor Terror) Tudor Tales Roman Tales Egyptian Tales The Fire Thief The Knowledge Pirate Tales True Stories Time Detectives The Spark Files World War I Tales World War II Tales Other books A Witch in Time The Ape Escape Classified Dangerous Days All about Bede: the life and times of the Venerable Bede, 672 - 735 AD (1996) Spooks (1997) Hat Trick Hope Street (1980); Ghost For Sale (2001) The Treasure of Crazy Horse (2001) The Custard Kid (2001) The Wishing Well Ghost (2002) Into The Lion's Den (2002) Footsteps in the Fog (2003) The Boy Who Haunted Himself