Then there was this

Terry Deary's attack on libraries branded 'ignorant twaddle': Authors, including artistic director of Bath Children's Literature Festival David Almond have criticised Terry Deary's comments that libraries are damaging the book industry

Deary furthered the debate yesterday by telling The Guardian that libraries were 'damaging'.

"Because it's been 150 years [since the Public Libraries Act], 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," he said.

The writer was the seventh most borrowed children's author from UK libraries last year. His books were borrowed more than 500,000 times during 2011/2012.

Under the Public Lending Right scheme, Deary would have received £6,600 – 6.2p per book – through people borrowing his books from a library. The amount he would get if he sold that number of books is £180,000.

But other library supporters have pointed out that families who use libraries are often those who can't afford to buy the books.

Here's a thought: without libraries, many of those 500,000 wouldn't have read his books at all, or told their friends what they thought about them, etc. I haven't read his illustrated series, Horrible Histories, which present unusual and sometimes downright gory scenes from history in a tongue-in-cheek manner, or any of his other books. I believe I shan't (and certainly won't buy them), especially given this, from his Wikipedia article:

Controversy

Deary is an outspoken critic of schools, which he believes serve no function above keeping children off the street. Deary has commented: "I've no interest in schools. 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."

Terry Deary has said of historians: "They are nearly as seedy and devious as politicians..They pick on a particular angle and select the facts to prove their case and make a name for themselves... They don’t write objective history... Eventually you can see through them all. They all come with a twist."

In 2013 Deary spoke out against public libaries as they are unfair to authors and people should not expect things for free. He claims, in contrast to his earlier beliefs on the lack of value in schools, that schooling provides the poor and underpriviledged with sufficent literacy and that he, as a tax-payer, should not subsidise more.

. Wow. No, I see no reason to give him money. In my opinion, he sounds like a complete jerk.