History 1
Of all the books I wrote in Fairburn, this is the only one which - give or take a few weeks -
covers the entire time I was there. A whole two-and-a-bit years of methodically copying other
people’s writing into a book I’d probably never look at again.
Why did we copy things out of other people’s books? I don’t know - I talk about that a lot more
cogently here - but we did. And the one clear mood memory that leaps out at me when I look
at this stuff is absolute stultifying boredom.
Unlike the other major subjects we tackled - mainly English and Topic, but also to an extent,
Geography and Maths - in this one, I wasn’t encouraged to engage with the subject matter on
a personal level or apply any original thought. And it’s obvious, looking through this book, that
I didn’t enjoy it. There’s one lesson at most every week, maybe less, some of them quite short.
Some pieces fade out halfway through. Sometimes the pencil changes halfway through a
page, suggesting I dragged my heels, ran out of time and had to catch up the following week. I
just didn’t find it interesting enough to pick up the pace.
The result is though, it’s actually got a coherence that - apart from maybe Topic 1 - none of the
other books have. There’s a section about prehistory, followed by a selection of pieces about
Nelson, then the entire life story of Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s all about the past. It actually
makes sense as the sort of thing you might learn at school, and especially, the sort of thing
you might learn about in a History lesson.
I don’t remember having any interest in History until some time in my late twenties. Now I’m
older, it seems like one of the most exciting and important pastimes you can ever lose
yourself in. But back then I hated it. I might have thought learning about cavemen would be
fun, but several months of copying out stuff about stone age toolmaking put paid to that. My
brain still glazes over when I think about Nelson. And I probably settled on Napoleon because
no one else was using the Napoleon book that day.
But there’s a certain joy in looking at this stuff - seeing how the handwriting develops, if only
slightly; watching the artwork slowly improve over time. If you can call it improvement.
Because some of these pictures are truly dreadful. I mean, shockingly bad, on a gut level. I
wasn’t going to upload this book at first, thinking it just too dry to be interesting for anyone
else to see, but genuinely, it’s the pictures that have convinced me. From the first wonky
picture of a cave lion to that final half-arsed picture of Napoleon, via some truly abysmal
attempts to draw animals and women, this truly is a cavalcade of bad artwork by a kid who’s
out of his depth.
As with most of the stuff here, I’m uploading this book bit by bit as I find the time to do so
over a period of several years. Please bear with me as I slowly strap you into this slow-motion
Historical car crash…
September 1979 - October 1981
People in the Old Stone Age
Guy Fawkes
People in the Old Stone Age: 2
People in the Old Stone Age: 3
The New Stone Age
People of the Bronze Age
The Story of Nelson: 1
The Story of Nelson: 2
The Story of Nelson: 3
Florence Nightingale
The Story of Nelson: 4
The Story of Nelson: 5
The Story of Nelson: 6
The Story of Nelson: 7
Christopher Columbus: 1
Christopher Columbus: 2
The Soldier
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon’s Mother
The Queen of Spain
The French Revolution
The Surrender of Toulon
Upon Return From Italy
The Armed Revolt
Josephine de Beauharnais
The Thin Young Man
The Little Corporal
The Most Famous Man in France
A Proposal About Egypt
Master of France
Weary of War
Hero of the People
Emperor at 34
Danger Across the Sea
Wherever Wood Can Float
An Empire in Decline
TERM 1
Sept-Dec 1979
TOPIC 1
Sept-Dec 1979
SCIENCE 1
Sept 1979 - Mar 1980
GEOGRAPHY 1
Sept 1979 - Feb 1981
Of all the books I wrote in Fairburn, this is the only one which -
give or take a few weeks - covers the entire time I was there. A
whole two-and-a-bit years of methodically copying other
people’s writing into a book I’d probably never look at again.
Why did we copy things out of other people’s books? I don’t
know - I talk about that a lot more cogently here - but we did.
And the one clear mood memory that leaps out at me when I
look at this stuff is absolute stultifying boredom.
Unlike the other major subjects we tackled - mainly English and
Topic, but also to an extent, Geography and Maths - in this one,
I wasn’t encouraged to engage with the subject matter on a
personal level or apply any original thought. And it’s obvious,
looking through this book, that I didn’t enjoy it. There’s one
lesson at most every week, maybe less, some of them quite
short. Some pieces fade out halfway through. Sometimes the
pencil changes halfway through a page, suggesting I dragged
my heels, ran out of time and had to catch up the following
week. I just didn’t find it interesting enough to pick up the pace.
The result is though, it’s actually got a coherence that - apart
from maybe Topic 1 - none of the other books have. There’s a
section about prehistory, followed by a selection of pieces
about Nelson, then the entire life story of Napoleon Bonaparte.
It’s all about the past. It actually makes sense as the sort of
thing you might learn at school, and especially, the sort of thing
you might learn about in a History lesson.
I don’t remember having any interest in History until some time
in my late twenties. Now I’m older, it seems like one of the most
exciting and important pastimes you can ever lose yourself in.
But back then I hated it. I might have thought learning about
cavemen would be fun, but several months of copying out stuff
about stone age toolmaking put paid to that. My brain still
glazes over when I think about Nelson. And I probably settled
on Napoleon because no one else was using the Napoleon
book that day.
But there’s a certain joy in looking at this stuff - seeing how the
handwriting develops, if only slightly; watching the artwork
slowly improve over time. If you can call it improvement.
Because some of these pictures are truly dreadful. I mean,
shockingly bad, on a gut level. I wasn’t going to upload this
book at first, thinking it just too dry to be interesting for anyone
else to see, but genuinely, it’s the pictures that have convinced
me. From the first wonky picture of a cave lion to that final half-
arsed picture of Napoleon, via some truly abysmal attempts to
draw animals and women, this truly is a cavalcade of bad
artwork by a kid who’s out of his depth.
As with most of the stuff here, I’m uploading this book bit by bit
as I find the time to do so over a period of several years. Please
bear with me as I slowly strap you into this slow-motion
Historical car crash…
TERM 1
Sept-Dec 1979
TOPIC 1
Sept-Dec 1979
SCIENCE 1
Sept 1979 - Mar 1980
GEOGRAPHY 1
Sept 1979 - Feb 1981
History 1
September 1979 - October 1981
