We believe education is a life-long endeavour; and that a love of learning, intellectual curiosity, creativity and resourcefulness are integral to becoming a successful citizen. Our projects empower children to develop these lifelong learning skills and raise their aspirations. We do this by exploring a topic – such as Magna Carta or The Economy – with a group of primary school children and creating an illustrated book that explains that topic to other children.
Our projects have three phases:
- Research: the Guy Fox team learns as much as we can about the topic, and then we create bespoke activities and educational resources for the classroom workshops.
- Workshops: the Guy Fox team and volunteers from our funding partner work with one class of children to learn about the topic and create illustrations for a book; we also usually go on a site visit somewhere relevant to our topic (like Runnymede or the London Metal Exchange).
- Publication: the Guy Fox team brings together the children’s drawings into a wonderful, illustrated book. And we ALL celebrate its launch! Then we send copies to children across London.
Over the years, we’ve gained a reputation for our attention to detail, organisation, innovation and, best of all, FUN! Plus, everyone – children, educators, volunteers, funders and the Guy Fox team – sees the impact that our projects and partnerships can make. In fact, we received a coveted Lord Mayor’s Dragon Award in 2012 for our partnership with UBS. We also won the Guardian Charity Award in 2004.
Unlike many countries’ constitutions, the Constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland isn’t found in one written document; it’s more of a puzzle with pieces including historic artefacts, traditions, customs and court decisions. This makes it a challenging but thrilling topic for our latest book!
The book is available from Guy Fox Direct and the Apple Bookstore.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Learn more about our partnership with Blackstone Chambers.
Funded by Blackstone Chambers and supported by their lovely volunteers
Featuring illustrations by children at Tower Bridge Primary School
Ever had a disagreement? Yes, we thought so. Don’t fret. Disagreements – disputes – are a part of life! And this book will help you develop skills to resolve your disputes! It will also tell you how complicated disputes can be resolved using our Legal System.
The book is available from Guy Fox Direct, Amazon.co.uk and the Apple Bookstore.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Berkeley Research Group, Blackstone Chambers and Jones Day and supported by their lovely volunteers
Featuring illustrations by children at Tower Bridge Primary School
If you think Philanthropy is just for mega-rich people who can make huge donations, we need to tell you something: YOU. ARE. WRONG!
Anybody can be a philanthropist – as long as you’ve got a passion for making a difference. And this little book is a perfect introduction, step-by-step guide and inspiration.
But don’t take our word for it.
Meet the children who created it and hear what they have to say! [YouTube Video]
‘How the World REALLY Works: Philanthropy’ is available from Guy Fox Direct, Amazon.co.uk and the Apple Bookstore.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS Optimus Foundation
Featuring illustrations by children at De Beauvoir Primary School
For this, the ninth project in our ‘How the World REALLY Works’ series, we teamed up with the City of London Corporation, children from The Aldgate Primary School and an army of Guy Fox volunteers. Together, we explored the City’s financial history and learned how (and why) different institutions and services were created. The result? A wonderful guide to the City and its financial services, featuring the children’s lovely illustrations.
You can view the launch on our Youtube channel.
The book is available on Amazon.co.uk and on the Apple Bookstore.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by the City of London Corporation
Supported by the Guy Fox family of volunteers
Featuring illustrations by children at The Aldgate Primary School
Following the success of our How the World REALLY Works books, we partnered with UBS to create 24 videos to explore and explain the Economy. Featuring the engaging illustrations of the Guy Fox Team and voices of UBS staff, these videos make a perfect introduction (or refresher!) to topics such as GDP or Supply & Demand.
Available on our YouTubeChannel!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS and supported by their talented volunteers
In 1919, Parliament passed the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, which removed the barriers for women to enter the legal profession. Our project – and this book – celebrates a century of women making legal history.
We conducted workshops with a Year 4 group, comparing the life and atittudes of 1919 to those of 2019, converting their classroom into the Houses of Parliament so that the children could re-enact the passage of the law and helping them create the drawings that illustrate the book. Our group was honoured to have an audience with Baroness Hale, first female president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
Available from Guy Fox Direct, Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Learn more about our partnership with Blackstone Chambers.
Funded by Blackstone Chambers and supported by their lovely volunteers
Featuring illustrations by children at Snowsfields Primary School
Buy low, sell high! Diversify your portfolio! Past performance is not indicative of future results!
If you’re curious about investments, this book explores them in the inimitable Guy Fox style. We don’t dumb-down anything; we simply explain the principles of investing, the way different asset classes work, and the role of asset management.
Supported by volunteers from Schroders, we worked with children from Moreland Primary School. We gave each child £100 investment capital and the opportunity to invest in 10 imaginary companies. Through weekly Guy Fox Financial News updates, the children saw the value of their investments rise and fall, learned about diversification and risk, and then created drawings to illustrate financial concepts. The result? The 8th title in our ‘How the World REALLY Works’ series.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £100).
Click here to order.
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Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Schroders and supported by their lovely volunteers
Featuring illustrations by children at Moreland Primary School
This book is all about MONEY and the ways that you can use it to make MORE MONEY! We worked with Snowsfields Primary School and volunteers from Willis Towers Watson to explore saving and investing. We started in November 2015 with a challenge – each student got a Guy Fox sketchbook and was asked to ‘work’ (draw or write). We told them their salary would be based on how many sketchbooks they filled by the time our workshops started. We then returned in April, set their salaries and asked them to budget for necessities and treats, plus consider their savings, investing and pensions. Over the course of 8 weeks, the students ‘aged’ from 8 to 80 and saw the repercussions of their choices. “Pay attention to your pension” became their mantra, and the school told us that the children were debating investing strategies on the playground. So this project made a huge impact!
Not only that, the children also illustrated this book, the 7th title in our ‘How the World REALLY Works’ series.
This project inspired our expansion into North America. See below for our Canadian and American books.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £100).
Click here to order.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Willis Towers Watson and supported by Willis Towers Watson volunteers
Featuring illustrations by children from Snowsfields Primary School (Bermondsey)
Following the success of ‘Savings, Investments & Pensions’ in the UK, Willis Towers Watson invited the Guy Fox team to develop American and Canadian adaptations of the book. We traveled to Washington DC and worked with local children to create this book.
This book is available as an iBook.
For information on hard copies of the book please Contact Us.
Funded by Willis Towers Watson and supported by volunteers in the Arlington, Virginia Office
Featuring illustrations by children at KIPPS Academy (Washington, DC)
Following the success of ‘Savings, Investments & Pensions’ in the UK, Willis Towers Watson asked the Guy Fox team to develop American and Canadian adaptations of the book. We traveled to Toronto and worked with local children to create this book.
This book is available only by special request, on a limited not-for-sale basis. We can’t guarantee its availability. Please Contact Us and we will send your request to Willis Towers Watson in Toronto.
Funded by Willis Towers Watson and supported by volunteers in Toronto
Featuring illustrations by children at Aldergrove Community School
This project marked the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, which destroyed most of the City after a spark escaped from a …… Oops!
We can’t tell you the whole story here! You’ll have to read our fantastic book, illustrated by children from Rotherhithe, which details the Great Fire itself and how the City was rebuilt afterwards.
Available as an iBook. And you can also watch our animated video!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by RSA Group and supported by RSA Group volunteers and the Guy Fox Team
Featuring illustrations by children from Redriff Primary School (Rotherhithe)
We encounter Intellectual Property every day, and yet most of us know very little about it! In this project, we explored copyright, trademarks and patents; and we learned why they are important to our economy. It’s not every project that lets us dress up like pirates to learn about intellectual property piracy, so we didn’t pass up the opportunity – and of course the children loved it! They also enjoyed visiting the National Portrait Gallery to learn about licensing; and of course, they enjoyed creating the illustrations for this, the 6th book in our popular ‘How the World REALLY Works’ series.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £100).
Click here to order.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Taylor Wessing LLP and supported by Taylor Wessing volunteers and the Guy Fox Team
Featuring illustrations by children from St Jude’s Primary School (Waterloo)
June 15th 2015 marked the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. As we learned during this project, King John didn’t sign it – he sealed it! And of course, we learned ALL about the events that led to the barons’ forcing him to do so.
Working with children from John Donne Primary School in Peckham, volunteers from the local community, barristers from Blackstone Chambers and a team of creative people, we produced amazing educational resources that explore the history and impact of Magna Carta – including a video, a book, an illustrated timeline and an educators kit.
The books are ALL GONE! But you can watch our animated video.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund
Supported by volunteers from Blackstone Chambers and the London community
The book features illustrations by children at John Donne Primary School, Peckham
In this project, we partnered with children from Brook Community Primary School and volunteers from UBS to create a children’s guide to the Economy. The children visited Borough Market where they learned about cheese production at Neal’s Yard Dairy, and they visited the Bank of England where they were treated to a guided visit and a special presentation by two of the Bank’s economists.
‘How the World REALLY Works: The Economy‘ is two books in one, featuring an explanation of Economic concepts and a description of the way the Economy works (which is useful for children and adults alike!).
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook! ‘The Economy’ videos will be released soon on our YouTube channel!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £150).
Click here to order.
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Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS and supported by UBS volunteers and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from Brook Community Primary School (Hackney)
Working with legal experts from Olswang LLP (now part of CMS) and Blackstone Chambers, we explored the Legal System with children from Peckham. We learned all about our Common Law system and how it evolved and we created a courtroom drama to teach the children about criminal trials. The resulting book, ‘How the World REALLY Works: Our Legal System‘, explains the history and structure of the English legal system. The book also includes a chart of the court system and an explanation of the difference between a solicitor and a barrister.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £100).
Click here to order.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded and supported by Olswang LLP, Blackstone Chambers and barristers
Featuring illustrations by children from John Donne Primary School (Peckham)
Question: What can you cover with 250 children and 250 volunteers?
Answer: The entire world!
‘World ABCs’ was our biggest project ever! We worked with an entire primary school and an army of volunteers. Every child was partnered with a volunteer, and, together, they became the ‘ambassadors’ for a sovereign nation. The ambassadors learned all about that nation, created illustrations of national landmarks, people and animals (which are featured in the book) and made educational presentations about their countries.
‘World ABCs with Guy Fox‘ is a 120-page compendium (a Guy Fox-o-pedia, if you will) of facts and figures about the amazing world in which we live!
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS
Supported by UBS Summer Interns (2011) and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from St James’s CE Primary School (Jamaica Road)
We teamed up with Catlin Underwriters and secondary students at St Paul’s Cross Way School to explore the life and work of Michael Faraday, the world’s greatest experimental scientist. With support from the Royal Institution, students presented their own lectures in the very place that Michael Faraday, Humphrey Davis and other scientists had lectured to sell-out crowds in the 18th century.
Sorry, the books are ALL GONE!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Catlin Underwriters and supported by Catlin volunteers and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by students from St Paul’s Cross Way Secondary School
For this project, we partnered with international commercial law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and children from Tower Bridge Primary School to learn how corporate lawyers take care of their clients. We explored the history of Law and different jurisdictions around the world; the children visited Norton Rose Fulbright’s offices where they were ‘lawyers for a day’ and they created the illustrations for this guide to International Commercial Law.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Norton Rose Fulbright and supported by Norton Rose Fulbright staff and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from Tower Bridge Primary School
We explored the history of London’s smallest and oldest borough, The City of London (also known as the ‘Square Mile’) with a group of primary students from Randal Cremer Primary School and volunteers from UBS. Students learned all about the history of The City and its major institutions and created the illustrations for this charming book.
Available on Amazon.co.uk.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS and supported by UBS volunteers and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from Randal Cremer Primary School (Hackney)
We teamed up with the lovely people in the Lloyd’s of London insurance market to create the second book in the ‘How the World REALLY Works’ series. Working with Christchurch Primary School in Brick Lane, we really pushed the boat out (if you’ll pardon the pun)! We turned the classroom into a 17th century coffee shop and asked students to decide which ships to underwrite. They negotiated premiums with volunteers and, when they discovered the fate of their ships, they either rejoiced or paid out on the claim.This and other innovative educational activities really brought the insurance market to life in the classroom.
And once the students understood how Lloyd’s works, they created illustrations for this book.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £100).
Click here to order.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by Lloyd’s Community Programme and supported by volunteers from the Lloyd’s Market and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from Christchurch Primary School (Brick Lane)
Our yummiest project ever! We teamed up with Shoreditch Spa who provided healthy cooking lessons to a group of children and UBS summer interns. Afterwards, the children created illustrations for this beautiful, easy-to-use cookbook. Watch out for the chocolate beetroot muffins!
Sorry, the books are gone – they got gobbled up in 2011!
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS and supported by UBS Summer Interns and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from Randal Cremer Primary School (Hackney)
This was the project that got our ‘How the World REALLY Works’ idea off the ground! We’d had this idea as far back as 2005, to teach children about hard-to-understand industries and financial topics, and when the UBS Community Affairs Committee agreed to fund the project, we were over the moon.
Available on Amazon.co.uk and as an iBook!
Also available directly from us (30 books for £100).
Click here to order.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by UBS and supported by UBS volunteers and the Guy Fox team
Featuring illustrations by children from Brook Community Primary School (Hackney)
We conducted this project to celebrate the 150th birthday of London’s best-loved landmark. We worked with children from Camberwell, exploring the history and engineering of the clocktower, the Great Clock and the massive bell that we all know and love. The children visited Big Ben to hear him strike noon and they were given special access to the London Metropolitan Archives.
The project resulted in a series of educational resources: a booklet (illustrated by the children), an educator’s kit, a ‘Happy Birthday Big Ben’ poster, a ‘How to Make a Bell’ poster and two videos.
The printed resources are long gone, but you can watch the videos on our YouTube channel.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund
Supported by the London Metropolitan Archives, and an army of Guy Fox volunteers
Wow, you’ve scrolled down this far! Thank you. We’ve decided NOT to include every project dating back to our origin, because we thought you’d be more interested in our recent and current work. Suffice to say, from 2000 to 2008, we were honing our craft, developing our skills and learning, learning, learning. So much learning! It took time (plus LOTS of mistakes) and by 2008, we’d finally built the Guy Fox organisation and we’d established clearly WHAT we do and HOW we do it! Of course, we’d always known WHY.
If you’d like to dive into Guy Fox history, please read ‘A History of a Charity in 20 Objects‘.
Please Contact Us if you have a question.
Our early projects were supported by grants from Awards for All, Bridgehouse Trust, Peabody Trust, Millennium Commission, Southeast London Community Foundation and the Pool of London Partnership
Guy Fox History Project does not receive any funding from local or central government. Our project costs are funded by grants or corporate partnerships, and we fund our own day-to-day costs.
We generate income through sales of our books & merchandise and generous donations from people who like what we do.
Please support us:
Corporate Partnerships
We’ve had the honour working with many world-class institutions in three countries, and we welcome approaches for new projects and partnerships. If you would like to chat with us, please Contact Us.
Our happy partners include UBS, St Martins Property, Schroders, the City of London, Willis Towers Watson, RSA and MoreThan, Lloyd’s of London, Norton Rose Fulbright, Taylor Wessing, Catlin, Olswang LLP, Berkeley Research Group, Jones Day and Blackstone Chambers.
We’ve also designed educational resources for Tower Bridge, Hilton London Park Lane, The Monument, HMS Belfast, Imperial War Museum, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, The Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, Merlin Entertainment Group, Rochester Bridge Trust and Arsenal Football Club.
Want to Join the Family?
We rely on an army of volunteers, who support our work in lots of different ways. From assisting in a workshop to recording a voice-over for a video, our volunteers tackle a range of important tasks. We’re sure we’ll have something interesting for you to do!
All of our volunteers must undergo rigorous child protection training and an enhanced DBS police check. No Ifs, no Ands, no Buts!
If you’d like to learn more, please Contact Us.