The popular seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea has long been a haven for holidaymakers, but the town also harbours some disturbing secrets... Discover the darker side of Southend with this spooky collection of spine-chilling tales from around the town. From ghostly sightings in Hadleigh Castle, ominous sounds and smells on the seafront and tales of mysterious shapes at the town's pubs and taverns, this book is guaranteed to make your blood run cold. Illustrated with over si...

You wont be familiar with every one of the huge array of women featured in this book, but all, familiar or not, leave unanswered questions behind them. The range is extensive, as was the research, with its insight into the lives and minds of women in different centuries, different countries, with diverse cultures and backgrounds, from the poverty stricken to royalty. Mistresses, murderers, smugglers, pirates, prostitutes, and fanatics with hearts and souls that feature every shade of black...

A history of true crime in a quaint resort town in Essex, England that hosts a variety of amusements—along with a legacy of madness, mayhem, and murder.This ghoulish look into the past takes readers on a sinister journey through Southend-on-Sea, from medieval times to the twentieth century, and featuring a rogues' gallery of cutthroats, highwaymen, witches, murderers, and madmen.Included are more than twenty notorious episodes offering fascinating insight i...

This "lively" study of female lawbreakers across centuries and cultures is "chock full of disquieting stories and truly twisted personalities" ( Booklist).Organized A-to-Z under six categories, this book offers insight into the lives and minds of women in different centuries and different countries, with diverse cultures and backgrounds from the poverty-stricken to royalty, who have defied law and order and social taboos. Read about mistresses, murderers, ...

Did you know?In the eleventh century, Edward the Confessor banished nightingales from the royal palace at Havering-atte-Bower because their singing disturbed his devotions.In 1913, Benny Hucks of Stansted Mountfitchet was the first person to perform a loop-the-loop in an aircraft.On Boxing Day 1946, Hatfield Heath villagers challenged local German and Italian POWs to a football match – and lost 11–0.Brentwood was the first town i...

While Southend-on-Sea, like many seaside towns, may not have been at the forefront of the struggle for suffrage and equal rights in the lives of women between 1850 and 1950, there are surprisingly famous names linked to the town and its women. Novelist Rebecca West, living in nearby Leigh-on-Sea during the First World War (and her lover, H.G. Wells) played a key role in the suffrage and feminist movements and in women's entry into the scientific and literary professions. Princess Louise, a...

The Secret History of Southend-on-Sea is full of intriguing information on the incredible residents, visitors and events that have played a part in Southend's story. Southend-on-Sea, the largest town in Essex, has had an amazingly rich history, and this book collects together hundreds of little-known facts and anecdotes that will make you see the town in a new light. Discover the 'Brides in the Bath' murderer, the top secret military operations performed just off ...

Southend-on-Sea is situated on the Thames Estuary but the originally small settlement grew rapidly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as it became a popular resort, showcased by the world’s longest pleasure pier and what remains of the Kursaal, an early amusement park. The city’s quirky history goes back to its early years and encompasses the last men to be hanged in the country for sheep stealing in 1820, the 1850s religious sect known as the Peculiar People, one of the world...

Writing Female Smugglers of the Nineteenth Century has proved quite a challenge, but a fascinating one. This was a century when the romantic notion of smuggling – bold runs onto beaches with kegs of alcohol – was diminishing as duties were slowly eroded on such highly desirable goods. But it was a century when more innovative and ingenious ways of smuggling a larger variety of goods came to the fore. Tobacco and alcohol, yes, but also lace, luxury fabrics and garments, jewellery and even l...

The Little Book of The East End is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information which no-one will want to be without. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and literally hundreds of wacky facts (plus some authentically bizarre bits of historic trivia). A reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time...

Based on quirky facts and fascinating data, with a discerning eye on the bizarre, the frivolous and the funny, The Little Book of the 1960s is nostalgia with a difference. The sights, the sounds, the lifestyle, the whole 1960s experience can be relived through the pages of this book, but be warned – you'll need a sense of humour. It's a book that can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the fashions, the scandals and the en...

Tales of haunting from one of the world's most terrifying landmarks.The Tower of London's most horrific tragedies are well known; the gruesome deaths of the two boy princes in the Bloody Tower, Anne Boleyn's execution, the Jesuit priests and heretics who suffered the agonies of the rack and thumbscrew. Is it any wonder, then, that there are frequent reports of bloodcurdling screams and moans, of unexplained footsteps and ghostly headless figures? Here, recorded for...