Britain’s Weirdest History: 100 Bizarre, Brilliant and Almost Unbelievable True Stories from the Past

British history is stranger than you were ever taught at school.A king whose funeral went spectacularly wrong. A woman who survived her own hanging. A rocket-powered wheel of explosives careering along a beach. A tax that persuaded people to brick up their windows. And a medieval law that somehow survived into the modern age.Britain's Weirdest History brings together 100 bizarre, brilliant and almost unbelievable true stories from Britain's past.Forget dry lists of dates and endless royal family trees. This is history at its most surprising, eccentric and entertaining, taking you through centuries of extraordinary events, peculiar people and moments that sound far too ridiculous to be true.Discover: - Royal disasters, unfortunate kings and spectacular calamities - Strange crimes, bizarre punishments and peculiar British laws - Military ideas that really should have stayed on the drawing board - Mad science, reckless medicine and extraordinary experiments - Famous hoaxes, frauds and magnificent liars - Disasters, strange places and remarkable discoveries - Eccentrics, adventurers and some very awkward characters - Uniquely British traditions that somehow survivedBehind the humour is carefully researched history. The stories are dated and placed, sources are provided by entry number, and where the popular version of an event does not match the evidence, the book tells you.Designed to be enjoyed from beginning to end or opened at random, Britain's Weirdest History is perfect for history lovers, trivia fans, pub-quiz enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys discovering the wonderfully strange side of Britain's past.100 stories. Centuries of history. And almost all of it stranger than fiction.