“The Croglin Vampire: England’s Earliest Vampire Legend?” is published by Withnail Books. It contains my detailed research into the deep background of the supposed vampire.
The story is that in the 19th century a vampire was active in the small village of Croglin, in Cumbria. Over the years the narrative developed and grew, depending on who was telling the story, until now the vampire is an established part of British supernatural folklore.
I investigated the legend’s various twists and turns for my non-fiction book “Paranormal Cumbria” in 2012 (spoiler alert: there never was a vampire). Withnail Books reprinted that chapter with permission in the chapbook, adding a number of fantastic illustrations, both historical and contemporary.
Sadly you can no longer order the 40-page chapbook, as it sold out in just two days. But you can read about it on their website, https://lnkd.in/eqV4HXib
And if you are ever in Penrith, it’s a great bookshop. Uncle Monty says so!
Category Archives: Book releases
In which the Author publishes his 31st book, ‘Bloody British History’…
Bloody British History, my 31st book, has just been published. It’s a sanguinary canter through some of the
more gruesome aspects of British history, with an eye to not merely the murderous and macabre, but also to
the strange and, at times, surreal. Delve within the illustrated pages and you will learn of prehistoric cannibals using skulls as drinking cups, discover how to boil a poisoner to death, understand the technique of chemical warfare during medieval sea battles, and learn more about the use of cheese as an instrument of torture than you ever wanted to know.
With a full cast including Ancient Britons, Romans, Barbarians, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Normans, Pirates,
Jacobites and invading Frenchmen, Bloody British History relates some of the most famous episodes in the
history of the British Isles from unfamiliar perspectives. The sight of the largest ship in the Spanish Armada
keeling over with blood pouring from its scuppers. The giant Viking at Stamford Bridge finally defeated by a
spear thrust to the testicles from below the bridge he was defending. William the Conqueror turning the North of England into an uninhabited wasteland. The Scots inventing the concentration camp. Roman SEALs
conducting amphibious warfare. Witchcraft in Westminster politics. Not the six wives, but the Six Executions of Henry VIII. And how not to assassinate Queen Victoria.
Featuring walk-on parts from all manner of unpleasant characters from Richard the Lionheart and Bloody
Mary to Jack the Ripper and Hitler’s Gestapo, Bloody British History does what it says on the can.
There will, indeed, be blood.
The book is published by The History Press and is available through all the usual retail channels, including the country’s hard-pressed but indispensable brick-and-mortar bookshops.
In which the Author proofs his next book: Bloody British History…
Bloody British History is my next non-fiction book for The History Press. It deals exclusively with the sanguinary
moments in British history, from prehistoric cannibals and the reality of Iron Age warfare to First World War
Zeppelin raids and the Gestapo’s detailed plans for ‘rationalising’ an occupied Britain in 1940.
Along the way you will encounter bloody massacres, revolting peasants, battles at sea and on land, foul murders,
royal executions, piracy in the English Channel, and a multitude of inventive punishments. There are also
explorations of the tactics of Roman Special Forces, how to boil people to death, and a medieval case of sex, lies and witchcraft.
William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionheart, Mary, Queen of Scots and the seven putative assassins of Queen
Victoria all get a look-in as well. Other episodes instruct you how to use medieval chemical weapons to blind your opponents, why the Wars of the Roses were like the longest football match ever, and the use of cheese as an
instrument of torture.
Yes, cheese.
One of the key moments between an author delivering the manuscript and the book actually being published is the revising of the proofs. These are the pages of the book printed out on double-sided A3 pages. The author combs
through the proofs, correcting any typos, formatting errors, incorrect image captions and so on. I’ve just completed this stage, and it’s a pleasure to see my prose matched with full-colour images on every page – not to mention
liberal splashes of graphic designer gore.
Here’s a preview of the cover, which may change a little between now and publication. Bloody British History will
be published in September.
And so: there shall be blood.
In which the Author publishes a new book on Scotland…
My latest book, The Little Book of Scotland, has just been published. Here’s the blurb:
The ultimate compendium of trivia miscellany about Scotland’s unusual history
Take a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed look at the most frivolous, fantastic, or simply strange information that there
is to tell about Scotland. Here we find out about unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous
sons and daughters, and literally hundreds of other wacky facts about Scotland. This book contains historic and
contemporary trivia, including such gems as the real story of William “Braveheart” Wallace, which king was
murdered in a barn, and where the World War II Commandos were formed. With subjects ranging from Sir Walter Scott to Sir Sean Connery, Queen Victoria to Mary Queens of Scots, this remarkably engaging compendium is
essential reading for travelers and Scots alike.
The book has already picked up a fair amount of press interest in Scotland: here’s the full-page feature from
Saturday’s Scottish Sun. No doubt more to come.
The Little Book of Scotland can be picked up online here or here or at your favourite bricks-and-mortar bookshop – support bookshops, people, especially independent bookshops, they are Good Things.
In which the author publishes another book (this one’s on witchcraft)…
‘Maggie Wall – The Witch Who Never Was’ is out on December 1st. Telling the story of my investigations into the
famous Maggie Wall Witchcraft Monument in Perthshire, Scotland – the only historic monument to a named witch
in the whole of the UK – it is a non-fiction detective historical story, leading to some very surprising conclusions
about this most enigmatic of monuments. Here’s the blurb:
A remarkable and striking B-listed roadside cross in Perthshire is painted with the words
‘MAGGIE WALL
BURNT HERE
AS A WITCH 1657′
Maggie Wall has subsequently become the most famous witch in Scotland, featuring in folklore, folk history and
modern pagan belief alike.
Which is strange, seeing as she never existed.
This is the story of the Witch Who Never Was.
‘Maggie Wall – The Witch Who Never Was’ is published as an ebook by The New Curiosity Shop out of Edinburgh. It is currently available on Amazon/Kindle, and will soon be downloadable for Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and the Apple iBookstore. The cost is around £2.80 or $3.60.
In which the Author appears on Into the Dark Radio (again) to talk zombies…
Those estimable gentlemen Steve Rogers and Shawn McMahon recently allowed me to blether on about Zombies from History: A Hunter’s Guide on their podcast-tastic Into the Dark Radio show. We talked anti-zombie weapons, where best to ride out the forthcoming zombie apocalypse, how the zombie of Charles Darwin would probably be writing Great Exhumations and David Potter’s Field, and other fun stuff, not least the exploding corpse of William
the Conqueror.
(It’s great being an author of the strange and peculiar: you can write “the exploding corpse of William the
Conqueror” as if it’s the most normal sentence in the world.)
You can listen to the podcast via iTunes or Stitcher, or go to Into the Dark Radio itself.
