Historian excited to return to 'natural habitat'

A historian and author who made the BBC's Horrible Histories for 11 years has said an upcoming appearance at a library will be like returning to his "natural habitat".

Greg Jenner, who also hosts the You're Dead To Me podcast, will be chatting to content creator Katie Kennedy during the free event in Crawley organised by West Sussex libraries.

The event is part of the Go All In festival which has been created for young people with £30,000 of National Lottery money.

Jenner told BBC Radio Sussex: "I meet so many brilliant young people who are smart and funny and engaged and curious about the world, and I am really looking forward to being in a room with them."

Jenner, 44, has written eight books for both young people and adults, with the most recent due for release in February.

He said the event aimed to get people into the library to talk about the different ways history can be accessed.

Katie Gledhill, lead manager for West Sussex Library Service, said: "We haven't traditionally been able to put on a lot activities aimed at that particular group, and that's really what we wanted to do with this [lottery] money".

Alongside the event with Jenner there will be Dungeons and Dragons sessions, Manga and writing workshops, as well as crafting afternoons.

Meanwhile, fellow author Sarah Crossan will be appearing at Worthing Library on 7 October.

Gledhill said: "We're competing with screens, competing with lots of distractions, and there is evidence young people are reading less for pleasure these days."

The Jenner event is the service's first attempt at running a hybrid in-person and online event.

Gledhill said: "We really hope we're going to get a good number of people watching online."

While a potentially tougher group to reach, Jenner said he feels real satisfaction when young people learn from his work.

He said: "It's a wonderful thing when a kid comes up to you and they can recount some extraordinary esoteric bit of knowledge from ancient Egypt and you think, 'where did you get that from?', and they say 'your book'."

Go All In is the slogan for the National Year of Reading 2026, a major UK-wide campaign launched by the Department for Education and National Literacy Trust to tackle the decline in reading enjoyment.

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