The Worst Children’s Jobs in History : ISBN 1 405 05519 7 Macmillan 2005 The Worst Children’s Jobs in History takes you back to the days when being a kid was no excuse. This book tells the stories of the children throughout Britain’s history whose work fed the nation, kept trains running and put clothes on everyone’s backs. Next time you find yourself having to listen to your parents, grandparents, uncles, neighbours and random old people in the supermarkets telling you how much harder they had it in their day, ask then if they were a jigger-turner or a turnip picker. No? An orderly boy, perhaps? A stepper? Maybe they spent their weekends making matchboxes? Still no? Then they have no idea about the meaning of hard work. Tony Robinson takes you on a guided tour through all the lousiest places for a kid to work. With profiles and testimonies of real kids in rotten jobs, this book will tell you things you probably didn’t want to know about the back-breaking, puke-inducing bits of being a child in the past.