Gruesome Tales and Histories Fact and Fiction

The business of death can be seriously absurd, and nothing illustrates this better than these gruesome true tales. This gory compendium details the frankly ridiculous ways in which a number of ill-fated unfortunates met (or failed to meet) their maker at the hands of lamentably inept executioners. With black and white illustrations, this book brings together a mixture of bungled executions, strange last requests and classic one-liners from medieval times to the present day.

ISBN: 9781840245035

In these grisly tales from the gallows, guillotine and gas chamber the fairer sex get it in the neck. You have been warned. From the Yorkshire Witch, who was accused of murder when a potion for good health turned out to be fatal, to the woman who survived the gallows and took her empty coffin away with her, this book is brimming with macabre true stories of executed women from around the world. Interspersed with quirky last requests, and with black and white illustrations throughout, this is history at its most morbidly fascinating.

ISBN: 9781840245004

The diary of Tilly Middleton, London, 1553-1559 12th February, 1554 Through my roof hole I am watching the final touches being put to the scaffold on Tower Green. It is draped in black, and straw has already been strewn around the block to catch the blood. There is no axe yet. The executioner will bring that. I wonder if Mother will let us watch? We usually do, on Tower Hill, but this is the first execution within the Tower Walls since I was about one and a half years old. Mother says that was a double execution-a queen and her lady-and tomorrow is the twelfth anniversary of those deaths. I do not remember them, of course, but I will certainly remember this...there have been many, many deaths in other parts of the Tower-some we never hear about. This bloody Tower.

ISBN: 9780439981835

The Body Owner's Handbook is the guide you simply can't live without. You'll discover a range of fantastic features you did't even know you had, including: . an auto-repair function . a built-in cooling system . top-of-the range sensory equipment . rear gas and waste disposal. So you think you can stomach the sick side of science? This mad manual shows you how to get the best from your body machine. Get the lowdown on the pluses of pus, the vitals of vomit and the science of snot. With trouble-shooting tips, terrific tests and curious quizzes, The Body Owner's Handbook is bursting with info! Science has never been so horrible!

ISBN: 9780439981064

Written in the early twentieth century, this book looks at the body of evidence concerning vampires from around the world, and throughout history, discussing Vampirism as an observable field of study with scientific, sociological, mythic, and literary elements.

ISBN: 9780486449982

'My Lord, You are aware that, at this moment, the public feeling is strongly excited against the perpetrators of the late foul and cold blooded murders that have taken place in the very centre of a populous and civilised city ...Your Lordship is aware, that in all civilized nations, blood calls for blood ...' From ' Letter to the Lord Advocate ...By The Echo of Surgeons' Square'. Early nineteenth century Edinburgh was gripped by fear of body snatchers. New graves were constantly under threat from unscrupulous ghouls keen to profit from the medical school's voracious appetite for corpses. In 1828, Burke and Hare, a pair of opportunistic low-lives, took the practice to a new extreme. They murdered at least 16 innocent victims, including a 12-year-old boy, in the name of medical science - and the freshness of the corpses they delivered for dissection earned them extra money. The names of Burke and Hare have become synonymous with body-snatching, but the true details of their crimes have been obscured by mythology and questions still surround the case. In Enlightenment Edinburgh, how were Burke and Hare able to carry on their repulsive and murderous trade undetected for so long? Why was only one of the homicidal due brought to justice? And what were the roles of Burke and Hare's common-law wives, the medical students who took delivery of the corpses and Dr Robert Knox, the distinguished teacher of anatomy whose dissecting table was the final resting place of the unfortunate victims? Bailey reveals a sordid side to a society which was famed for its intellectual and progressive thinking, yet depended on predatory criminals for the advance of medical knowledge. In this compulsive and absorbing book, the evidence is thoroughly re-examined - and startling conclusions are reached.

ISBN: 9781840185751

There had been other fires, of course. Four hundred and fifty years before, the city had almost burned to the ground. The citizens still called it the Great Fire. But that autumn they were more fearful of destruction borne by water. Across the sea, the Dutch and French threatened a country barely recovered from civil war and still uncertain of its new King. Yet the signs from the heavens were ominous: comets, pyramids of flame, monsters born in city slums. Then, in the early hours of 2 September 1666, a small fire broke out on the ground floor of a baker's house in Pudding Lane. In five days that small fire would devastate the third largest city in the Western world: London By Permission of Heaven, Adrian Tinniswood's magnificent new account of the Great Fire of London, explores the history of a cataclysm and its consequences, from that first small blaze to the decades-long work of rebuilding. The statistics of the disaster are terrible: 436 acres of closely packed streets burned; 13,200 houses destroyed; -10 million lost at a time when -10 million represented the City's annual income for 800 years. But the Great Fire wasn't simply a tragedy of economics or architecture.

ISBN: 9780712668477

This fascinating book is based on a remarkable discovery: Sherlock Holmes' methods of deduction were actually those of his creator and used in order to solve real crimes; for Scotland Yard, Holmes really did exist in the form of Conan Doyle. Author Peter Costello draws on new research to follow the tracks Conan Doyle left as he entered the real world of Sherlock Holmes; his fictional outpourings were the direct result of their author's hidden career as an amateur detective and criminologist.

ISBN: 9781845294120

Fifteen-year-old Tom lives in the murky, sooty city of London, where he helps his father to run a print shop. Among the customers is wise old Dr Harker, a retired physician and seafarer, whose patient demeanor and fascinating tales endear him to Tom. When Tom and Harker hear a newspaper seller announce a most curious murder in the city, with the victim pierced by an arrow and left holding an illustrated card of 'Death and the Arrow', they are both intrigued by the mystery. As subsequent 'Death and the Arrow' victims are discovered, the mystery closes ever more tightly round the city and intrudes even into Tom's own life. From then onwards, he can't rest till he has discovered the truth behind the murders. This is a really atmospheric venture into the eighteenth-century, combined with a gripping mystery plot, that will fascinate and engage readers of ten and upwards.

ISBN: 9780552554756

Provides a simplified and shortened retelling of a literary classic. This book intends to encourage enthusiastic young readers to pursue an interest in literature. It is also suitable for older readers who prefer a quick read.

ISBN: 9780746076675

Of the many admiring reviews, Bram Stoker's "Dracula" received when it first appeared in 1897, the most astute praise came from the author's mother, who wrote her son: 'It is splendid. No book since Mrs. Shelley's Frankenstein or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror.' A popular bestseller in Victorian England, Stoker's hypnotic tale of the bloodthirsty Count Dracula, whose nocturnal atrocities are symbolic of an evil ages old yet forever new, endures as the quintessential story of suspense and horror. The unbridled lusts and desires, the diabolical cravings that Stoker dramatized with such mythical force, render "Dracula" resonant and unsettling a century later.

ISBN: 9780142005156

From the story by Bram Stocker. When Jonathan Harker arrives at creepy Castle Dracula in Transylvannia, he has no idea what to expect. But all too soon his host's horrible nocturnal habits have him fearing for his life...

ISBN: 9780746047248

Arriving at Castle Dracula, the vast ruined home of a Transylvanian nobleman, a young English visitor finds himself thrust into a realm of sensation and horror beyond his most nightmarish dreams. His experiences give rise to an urgent campaign to destroy the vampire count, to eliminate Dracula's cult of the living dead, and to triumph over a centuries-old evil. Bram Stoker's masterpiece is a thriller of such hypnotic intensity that it has captured millions of readers around the world and inspired its own literature and mythology of the supernatural. This beautiful new edition includes a foreword by Elizabeth Kostova, the internationally bestselling author of THE HISTORIAN.

ISBN: 9780316732895

Provides a simplified and shortened retelling of a literary classic. This book intends to encourage enthusiastic young readers to pursue an interest in literature. It is also suitable for older readers who prefer a quick read.

ISBN: 9780746076651

Ten of the most terrifying ghost stories are retold ...with a twist! The Body Snatchers - join Dr Fettes on a midnight trip to the graveyard and discover why disturbing the dead can lead to something dead disturbing. The Night Mail - take a ride on board a spectral stagecoach, but don't complain if the passengers are a little too spooky...The Turn of the Screw - tune in to Al Mighty's chat line for a spine-chilling tale of children with some very ghoulish friends. You've never read them like this before ...

ISBN: 9780439963596

William May returns to London after the horrors of the Crimean War. Scarred and fragile though he is, he lands a job at the heart of Bazalgette's transformation of the London sewers. There, in the darkness of the stinking tunnels beneath the rising towers of Victorian London, May discovers another side of the city and remembers a disturbing, violent past. And then the corruption of the growing city soon begins to overwhelm him and a violent murder is committed. Will the sewers reveal all and show that the world above ground is even darker and more threatening than the tunnels beneath? Beautifully written, evocative and compelling, with a fantastically vivid cast of characters, Clare Clarke's first book is a rich and suspenseful novel that draws the reader right into Victorian London and into the worlds of its characters desperately attempting to swim the tides of change.

ISBN: 9780141018331

Ten of the most thrilling horror stories are retold ...with a twist! The Hound of the Baskervilles - can Sherlock Holmes save the Baskerville family from the fangs of the demon-dog? Crime-busting show Wuff Justice follows the investigation...Dracula - take a trip to Transylvania and meet the toothy count. He's starring in an all-singing, all-dancing musical spectacular...The Pit and the Pendulum - Wicked Interiors Magazine takes us on a terrifying tour of the deepest, darkest, deadliest dungeon of them all. It's torture! You've never read them like this before...

ISBN: 9780439959186

It was an ordinary semi-detached with grubby walls and net curtains. A young man answered the door to police officers with a search warrant, intent on digging up the back garden. The house was 25 Cromwell Street; the man the eldest son of Fred and Rose West. The world's most shocking murderers were somebody's neighbour, someone else's dad. Why do they do it? What turns a person into a killer? And why are we fascinated by them? From Arsenic Annie to the Zodiac Killer, this chilling compendium features a deadly real-life cast of the most barbaric killers of all time.

ISBN: 9781840244854

A man with one eye is trying to kill young Will Marsden. All Will wants is to get to Stratford where William Shakespeare has promised him work, but somebody seems to think he has important information. And when Shakespeare's daughter Judith is kidnapped, Will and his friend Meg discover that the world of the theatre is not what it seems. Certain actors are spying on their countrymen, on the orders of the queen herself...It takes Will's courage, Meg's ingenuity and the genius of Shakespeare himself to get out of the desperate plot they find themselves mixed up in.

ISBN: 9781842551516

Here is the latest edition of the world's premier annual showcase of horror and dark fantasy fiction. It features some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's masters of the macabre - including Peter Atkins, Cliver Barker, Glen Hirschberg, Joe Hill and Caitlin R. Kiernan. "The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror" also features the most comprehensive yearly overview of horror around the world, lists of useful contact addresses and a fascinating necrology. It is the one book that is required reading for every fan of macabre fiction.

ISBN: 9781845293154

This unputdownable new anthology from Mike Ashley presents 25 whodunnits set in those turbulent times - also the age of the Witchfinder General, 'revenge' tragedies and the colonization of America. Stories of murder and mayhem centre on the true role of Guy Fawkes, the English Civil War and the fate of Charles I, plus the lost colony of Roanoke and the tale of Pocahontas. This is a fast paced anthology for a thrilling time in British history.

ISBN: 9781845293031

"My Side of the Story" is completely unique approach to historical fiction. Read the story of one youngster's life in turbulent times, then flip the book and find out first hand how another child reacts to the same events - with very different feelings and results! "Lizzy": This work is set in summer 1842. Lizzy Sprott is thirteen, the daughter of a poor cotton worker, she works at the mill with him. Passionate and impulsive she persuades her moderate father to draw up a petition demanding better working conditions. The plan backfires when Lizzy's father gets blacklisted by mill owner Grumstone. Lizzy thinks everything will be all right as she knows Grumstone's son - they used to play together when she was younger. But suddenly events escalate and there are violent riots outside the mills. Has Lizzy left everything too late...? "Josh": Josh Grumstone is the well-to do son of a cotton mill owner. Diffident but thoughtful, he comes back from boarding school to find the mill in crisis. First siding with his father, he later begins to believe the workers have a rightful cause, especially when the hardheaded Grumstone becomes bent on breaking the strike with means fair or foul.
And now that his former friend Lizzy is involved he cannot ignore the danger. Danger that costs some people their lives...

ISBN: 9780753413555

Follow Oliver's adventures as he falls in with Fagin's gang of thieves and tries to stay on the right side of the law, and find out who is the mysterious stranger plotting against him. Vibrant full-colour artwork adds fresh appeal to this classic tale. Speech bubbles work with the main text to emphasise and enhance the retelling. A running glossary at the foot of each page helps young readers with any challenging vocabulary without disrupting their reading experience. Endmatter provides information about the author, the historical background to the period in which the author lived and a timeline of world events that places the work in historical context. It fits into Key Stage 2 English and supports Key Stage 3 English. It helps achieve the goals of the Scottish Standard Curriculum 5-14.

ISBN: 9781905087921

Queen Elizabeth is dying, and England is in turmoil. There are witch hunts going on. No one is safe, not even Will's grandmother. The penalty is death by drowning. So Will is sent to London to clear the Marsden family name. He gets to meet the Queen -- but he hasn't bargained for Doctor Dee, the great magician she admires so, nor for the plots and conspiracies that surround her. It's a race against time for Will and his friend Meg, and they have dangerous enemies. But Will discovers some strange parallels with his grandmother's experiences as a girl at the court of Queen Mary, Elizabeth's bitter rival ...

ISBN: 9781842551523

From the luxurious to the lethal, the Tower of London has been subject to a wealth of mishaps, myths and misconceptions for nearly 1,000 years. Originally designed by William the Conqueror just after the Battle of Hastings as the country's greatest fortress, it has since been a palace, a prison, a torture chamber, a place of execution, an armoury, a giant safe, a mint and a menagerie! And despite - or perhaps because of - its dark and bloody past, it still attracts millions of visitors today. Packed with secrets and superstitions and drawing references from such luminaries as More, Shakespeare and Gilbert and Sullivan, Tales from the Tower leads the reader through the Tower's gory, glorious and often glamorous history. This compendium asks...What happened to the little princes and were their bodies ever found? Who was the most famous person to be tortured in the Tower of London? What is Traitor's Gate and why did most people arrive there? Who was executed by drowning in a barrel of wine in the Bowyer Tower? Which Bloody man was rewarded for trying to steal the crown jewels and why? What could happen if the ravens were made to leave the tower - and why can't they fly away?

ISBN: 9781845250263

About one in ten people claim to have seen a ghost, this title documents 12 separate, spine-chilling accounts. From moonlit spirits in an English vicarage to the "Bell Witch" phantom of Tennessee, USA, the events are described as they were reported at the time.

ISBN: 9780746051917

By the spring of 1645, civil war had exacted a terrible toll upon England. Disease was rife, apocalyptic omens appeared in the skies, and idolators detected in every shire. In a remote corner of Essex, two obscure gentlemen began interrogating women suspected of witchcraft, triggering the most brutal witch-hunt in English history. "Witchfinders" is a spellbinding study of how Matthew Hopkins - 'the Witchfinder General' - and John Stearne extended their campaign across East Anglia, driven by godly zeal. Exploiting the anxiety and lawlessness of the times, and cheered on by ordinary folk, they extracted confessions of satanic pacts resulting in scores of executions.

ISBN: 9780719561214

ISBN: 9780753711651

ISBN 0753711648