An interesting collection of short biographies of people who lived extraordinary lives or did extraordinary things. Most of the sections were just the right size, neither being too short and omitting too much or too long either. They also provided bibliographies for each section for more indepth reading on the subjects.

My one criticism though is the Brit-centric subjects. The majority of people were from the United Kingdom with some from the United States and almost no one from other countries. All the subjects were worthy of inclusion but I would have to liked to have read more about others I may not have heard of before. ( )

There are a few non fiction books which I remember from my childhood – or at least I remember snippets of them. These are generally books which lived at my nan’s house, and got picked up whenever I stayed. It’s quite easy to imagine this book falling into the same category for future grown ups!

It’s split into nice chunks, with each hero (or group of heroes) having their own chapter. It’s a great way to get little snippets of history, especially as it’s presented in such a positive way. Hopefully it will even encourage the readers to go out and find out more about the events and the people.

Of course, it’s not only for the young – anyone interested in finding out a little more about the people behind our history, it’s a good book to dip into.

I haven’t read any of the other ‘Dangerous’ books, so I can’t tell how it fits – but I may well now take a look.