Bloody British History: Leeds – OUT NOW!

I’ve gone and written another book!

You can buy it HERE!

Leeds is a city with a long, dark and grisly history. From the long-ago battle of the Winwaed, when pagans clashed with Christians and the river Winwaed ran red with blood, to the filth and misery of the Black Death – from the blood-soaked years of the Civil War, the heroism of Sir Tom Fairfax and the massacre on Seacroft Moor, to the crippling scourge of King Cholera and the mob violence of the Chartist revolt in Victorian Holbeck…

Murder most foul in Beeston, a ghastly Last Waltz at Armley Gaol, slaughter in mediaeval Calverley, bodysnatchers at work in Wortley and East Ardsley… this is a city built on stories, forged in war and steeped in blood.

Bloody British History: Leeds brings those stories to vivid life. The city’s mouldering bones are unearthed, its skeletons rattled, its long-held secrets revealed, and its darkest, dingiest corners thrown open to a thrilling new light. This is local history like you’ve never read it before…

Here’s a little post I wrote on the subject for my publisher The History Press: http://www.facebook.com/notes/the-history-press/bloody-british-history-leeds-a-feature-by-richard-smyth/10151423263853631

And here’s a nice piece in the Yorkshire Evening Post: http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/leeds-nostalgia-when-the-dripping-riots-gripped-city-1-5439789?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it 

Bum Fodder: now in all good bookshops!

Hello!

It’s very nearly Christmas, or at least it’s very nearly December, which these days amounts to much the same thing, so ’tis the season for plugging splendid Christmas gift ideas… LIKE THIS:

It’s my new book, Bum Fodder: An Absorbing History Of Toilet Paper. It’s an ideal gift for anyone who’s ever used toilet paper, or who might be thinking of using it in future.

You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bumfodder-Richard-Smyth/dp/028564114X.

It’s full of fascinating facts. Do you know, for instance, what bumphleteers did in World War Two?

Do you know why, if a sailor asks you to play The Galley, you should say no?

Do you know what happened to the submarine that ran out of toilet-paper?

And have you ever wondered where the ancient Greek put his xylospongion?

Unless you read Bum Fodder, YOU MAY NEVER FIND OUT.

It’s even got pictures in it. I drew them all by myself.

Scrooge