Following The Historians Book 39 - The Rise and Fall of Gestures Drama, Peter Greenaway continues his fictional history of a country as recorded by real and famous historians. Toys lists a catalogue of toys emanating from the detritus of four decades of war. At the turn of the Millennium Historians attempted to make a fresh start at keeping a record of a rejuvenated world. They promised to write a full history of the years of the coming century. To start with they needed a new population. Once they had recorded their knowledge of post-war human conceptions in Book Zero, the Historians could go on to record the New Births in Book One, and Names in Book Two, and then perhaps Childhood Diseases in Book Three and then perhaps Toys in Book Four. In the last decade of the century there would be Historians to compile Book Ninety-Six on Fatal Illnesses, Book Ninety-Seven would record Deaths, Book Ninety-Eight would record Funerals & Memorials, Book Ninety-Nine would record Last Wills & Testaments and Book One Hundred would record Ghosts. Here is Book Four to record TOYS.