Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England f...

This revealing history explores Britain's use of concentration camps from the Boer War to WWII and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.The term concentration camp will forever be associated with the horrors of Nazi Germany. But the British were the true driving force behind the development of these notorious facilities. During the Boer War, British concentration camps caused the deaths of tens of thousands of children from starvation and disease. In the years after Wor...

One of the most influential books on chess ever published – now in digital format. The Tiger is a vicious beast. He doesn't care about the aesthetic side of chess. He doesn't even care about making the 'best' moves. All he cares about is winning.Do you want to win more games? Then become a Tiger. 'Chess for Tigers' tellsyou how to make the most of your playing strength, how to play upon youropponent's weaknesses, how to steer the game into a position which suits you...

A look at the leader and members of the militant Women's Social and Political Union and their contribution to the rise of fascism during the 1930s.Emmeline Pankhurst is seen today as a valiant champion of democracy, but in the 1930s certain prominent former suffragettes were comparing her to Hitler and Mussolini. It was suggested that Mrs. Pankhurst and her Women's Social and Political Union could be viewed as a proto-fascist movement; an idea likely to strike the m...

"Webb takes what we know about these magical beings via pop culture and explores their origins and how their respective images have changed over time." — The PortalistThis book tells the fascinating story of the origin of our ideas about wizards, witches, and fairies. We all have a clear mental image of the pointed hats worn by such individuals, which are based upon actual headgear dating back 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. Carefully sifting through old le...

Will Bennett is down on his luck with a vengeance. Falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to hang, it seems as though the end of his young life is in sight. But he has an astounding change of fortune, and a strange circumstance of fate frees him to track down the man who was really responsible for the murder of Amelia Dyson, of which he was falsely accused. His journey takes him to the Texas town of Sherman. Here, he learns the truth about the plot which nearly sent him to the gallows. ...

What was it like being a teenager in a world without computers, smartphones, DVD players, games consoles or the Internet? Imagine a time when sharing music meant taking a record round to your friend's house; when making a quick phone call could involve queuing outside a red telephone box! This book looks at the fads and fashions, music, hobbies and TV programmes which defined the '70s for many youngsters. If you remember riding a chopper, reading Jackie during the 'Winter ...

When Anthony Armstrong returns to his hometown of Parson's End after completing his studies at Harvard, he expects to spend a few quiet weeks lending a hand at his family's farm. When his father is shot, however, he is drawn into a vicious range war. Armstrong longs to return to his studies, but as the body count rises, his chances of ever seeing Harvard again grow fewer by the hour. Matters reach a shattering climax when he is confronted by a ruthless and bloodthirsty band of Comancheros....

Between the beginning of the First World War in the summer of 1914 and the armistice in 1918, 51 men were executed in Britain. The great majority, over 80%, were hanged for murder, but in addition to this, 11 men were shot by firing squad at the Tower of London. One traitor and one spy were also hanged. First World War Trials and Executions tells the story of the most interesting and noteworthy of these executions and the crimes which led up to them.Most books about true c...

This book relates a chapter of American military history which many people would rather forget. When the United States came to the aid of Britain in 1942, the arrival of American troops was greeted with unreserved enthusiasm, but unfortunately, wartime sometimes brings out the worst, as well as the best, in people. A small number of the soldiers abused the hospitality they received by committing murders and rapes against British civilians. Some of these men were hanged or shot at Shepton M...

Quakers have been writing poetry about their extraordinary faith and way of life since the beginning of the Society of Friends, in the middle of the seventeenth century.This book brings together poems about Quakerism by Quakers and non-Quakers from the first 250 years of the Society.

In the years since the 7/7 attacks on the London transport system, many people in Britain seem to have become convinced that we live in uniquely dangerous times and that the threat from terrorism has never been greater. In fact, terrorist attacks have been a feature of life in London for many years. The worst terrorist bombing in the capital before 7/7 took place in 1867, when twelve people were killed in an explosion in Clerkenwell. The first person to be killed by a bomb...