IT was bound to happen. Having run out of Romans, finished with the First World War and nastified the Normans, Horrible Histories author Terry Deary has turned his attention to our historic cities.

He's already done a Loathsome London. Now it's York's turn.

"The reign of pain comes mainly from the Dane," says an unfortunate Anglo-Saxon, slumped among the ruins of historic York as a Viking stands over him

brandishing a spear. It's a typical cartoon from Deary illustrator Mike Phillips, it's splashed all over the cover of Horrible Histories: York. And it sums up just what you can expect from this rollicking romp through York's 2,000 years of history.

There's a ghoulish relish about the way Deary describes the fate of Northumbrian ruler Lord Aella at the hands of the Viking Ivar the Boneless. "We turn Aella on his face and hold him down," says the first caption to a series of cartoon drawings. "We rip off his shirt and carefully mark where his ribs join his spine...now we use a knife to carefully cut the ribs off the spine... we reach inside his back and pull out his lungs... they look a bit like this."

Deary writes with glee about the Normans' burning of the city in 1069; some of the city's awful Archishops (including Richard Scrope, executed for leading a rebellion against King Henry IV); the torture of Guy Fawkes; the crushing to death of Margaret Clitheroe; and, of course, the execution of Dick Turpin. Along the way, he finds time for the massacre of the jews at Clifford's Tower, a plague or two, and a gallery of ghoulish ghost stories.

It's not history for everyone: but for lovers of the horrible with an interest in York, it's a must.

Stephen Lewis

Horrible Histories: York by Terry Deary is published by Scholastic, priced £4.99.

Updated: 16:07 Friday, October 14, 2005