Grim Almanacs

A Grim Almanac of the Black Country is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the area. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of the Black Country's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of mining disasters, freak weather, bizarre deaths and tragic accidents, including the gunpowder explosion at a factory in Tipton which claimed nineteen lives in 1922. Also featured is the corpse in West Bromwich that was twice wrongly identified in 1929, the collapse of a concert hall roof in Walsall in 1921, and the two labourers buried in molten glass near Stourbridge in 1893. All these, plus tales of fires, catastrophes, mysteries and executions, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of the Black Country's grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

The Georgian era was perhaps one of the most shocking, gory, vice-ridden and downright surprising in the capital's history. From an anaconda attack at the Tower of London to a ghost in Regent's Park, a murder at the House of Commons, a body-snatching case which horrified all of London, a murderer who advertised for a new wife in The Times and a decapitated head in the churchyard of St Margaret's in Westminster, it will terrify, disgust and delight residents and visitors alike. With 100 incredible illustrations from the rarest and most sensational true-crime publications of the age, no London bookshelf is complete without it!

A Grim Almanac of Staffordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the county. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of murders, this almanac explores the darker side of the Staffordshire's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of freak weather, bizarre deaths and terrible accidents, including the young lad 'jellified' after falling into factory machinery, and the deaths of 155 men in the Minnie Pit disaster of 1918. Alongside tales of fires, catastrophes, suicides, thefts and executions - it's all here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Staffordshire's grim past. Read on ... if you dare!

A Grim Almanac of South Yorkshire is a collection of stories from the county's past, some bizarre, some fascinating, some macabre, but all equally absorbing. Revealed here are the dark corners of the county, where witches, body snatchers, highwaymen and murderers, in whatever guise, have stalked. Accompanying this cast of gruesome characters are old superstitions, omens, strange beliefs and long-forgotten remedies for all manner of ailments. Within the Almanac's pages we visit the dark side, plumb the depths of past despair and peer over the rim of that bottomless chasm where demons lurk, with only a candle's light to see by . . . metaphorically speaking of course. You are invited to take that journey, if you are brave enough, and meet some of the people that populated the past . . . while author Kevin Turton holds the candle at arm's length.

A Grim Almanac of Oxfordshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from the county's past. There are murders and manslaughters, including the killing by Mrs. Barber of her entire family in 1909 while temporarily insane, and the brutal murder of four-year-old Edward Busby in 1871, killed by his mother to prevent his father ill-treating him. There are bizarre deaths, including those of four-year-old Charles Taylor, who was accidentally kicked clean through a top storey window in 1844 by a child playing on a swing, George Sheppard, who was struck by a cricket ball during a match in 1905, and of the vicar of Bucknell, who starved himself to death in 1935.There is an assortment of calamities which include strange and unusual crimes, devastating fires, rail crashes, explosions, disasters, mysteries, freak weather and a plethora of uncanny accidents. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Oxfordshire's grim past. Delve into the dreadful deeds of Oxford's past, if you dare…

Discover 365 gruesome tales from Birmingham's past. With appalling accidents, frightful crimes and extraordinary deaths, there's something to surprise even the most hardened reader. Featured here is the man who deliberately swallowed his wooden walking stick, a nineteenth-century horsemeat scandal, a drunken dispute that led to a man being stabbed in the eye with a table fork, and the lightning storm which hit a fog-signalling factory, setting off 43,000 explosions. True accounts of fires, catastrophes, murders, executions and a variety of nasty goings-on in the Birmingham of yesteryear await you within.

This day-by-day account of gruesome tales from York's past reveals the seedy underbelly of what was historically the most important city in the North. Inside these pages you will find true stories of murder and intrigue, battles and conspiracies, witches and religious martyrs, gruesome executions and horrible accidents. Read about Margaret Clitherow, tortured to death for her beliefs, Richard Scrope, the archbishop executed for treason, and of course the notorious highwayman Richard 'Dick' Turpin and his moonlight ride. If you have ever wondered what nasty goings-on occurred in the York of yesteryear, then read on ... if you dare!

In 1826 'resurrection men' stole thirty bodies from the graveyard of St Mary's Church in Nottingham to sell to unscrupulous medical establishments in London. It emerged they had been shipping their cargo to the capital in wicker baskets booked aboard stagecoaches, but they were never caught. In 1908 Mansfield tattooist Arthur Scott attacked a customer who refused to pay his bill. Scott tracked his quarry down after two days and attempted to shoot him. He failed, but it didn't take the police long to find Scott-the only tattooist in Mansfield. On 7 June 1865 Thomas Whittaker left the bar of a Newark pub to visit the toilet in the backyard. As he returned he slipped from the top of a flight of wooden stairs and fell head first into a water butt. He drowned. When Retford eccentric John Clifton died in 1816 he left a deadly legacy. He had a life-long fascination for fireworks and made them for his friends. While sorting through John's things his sister found a tin of black powder, which she thought was worthless, and threw it on the fire. The resulting explosion killed her and demolished the house. A Grim Almanac of Nottinghamshire is a collection of stories from the county's past, some bizarre, some fascinating, some macabre—all absorbing. Revealed here are the dark corners of Nottinghamshire, where witches, body snatchers, highwaymen and murderers have stalked. Within the Almanac's pages we plumb the depths of past despair and peer over the rim of that bottomless chasm where demons lurk. Author Kevin Turton has pored over the historic records of the county to bring together these extraordinary accounts of past events.

A Grim Almanac of Glasgow is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 ghastly tales from around the city. Full of dreadful deeds, strange disappearances and a multitude of mysteries, this almanac explores the darker side of Glasgow's past. Here are stories of tragedy, torment and the truly unfortunate with diverse tales of brutal murders, tragic suicides, and macabre events, including the experiments of Dr Andrew Ure, who, in 1818, applied electricity to the dead body of an executed murderer, animating the corpse and convincing spectators that the murderer had come back to life! All these, plus tales of fires, explosions and bizarre accidents, are here. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Glasgow's grim past. Read on... if you dare!