The Hangman’s Psalm: The Girl at the Gallows By: Carter J. Gregory Public hangings were great sport in 18th century London. Mobs of cursing men and shrieking women would turn out to witness a doomed man being hauled to the scaffold where the hangman, Jack Ketch, awaited him. The spectacle was given an aura of sanctity when choirs and bells pealed out hymns in praise of God, and the doomed man was required to recite the damning words of the biblical Psalm 51: “Behold I was shapen in wickedness and in sin did my mother conceive me”—or be lashed with a Cat o' nine tails if he refused. The Psalm was called The Hangman's Psalm. NOTE: Psalm 51 has been misunderstood for centuries. It is an example of Hebrew poetry, which is alive with dramatic hyperbole and metaphor, and not to be taken literally. It's a pity that neither the Crown nor jack Ketch knew the entire Psalm, which begins with an affirmation of God's mercy and ends with the ecstatic cry: “Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness, and the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.” A desperate thief, his dead father, a beautiful young girl, a priest, and a hangman are destined to meet at the foot of the gallows—so claims a gypsy fortune teller whose tarot card predicts that someone will die a fool's death...but who? In 18th century London a thief could be hanged for stealing a kerchief, a hat, a bolt of cloth—and the thief in this story, Daniel Tavard, is guilty of such crimes. A bounty of 250 Guineas is offered by the Crown for his capture. But the bounty-hunters are not the ones who bring the thief to the hangman and collect the Guineas. Daniel's birth and death are shrouded in mystery. Why did his father Joseph flee France? Where is his mother? Only Maggie Quinn knows—Joseph's mistress(whore). When Daniel was little he thought Maggie was his mother—she quickly disabused him of that notion. But Maggie knows who his mother is, and why Joseph fled France, and she swore she would never tell the boy. Daniel goes about searching for answers, but as he does so, two bounty-hunters lay a plot to seize him. A young girl, Catherine, enters Daniel's life, and for the love of her he risks his fate at the hands of the bounty-hunters.

Hangman's Brae is a vividly written account of the blood-curdling crimes and brutal forms of punishment of north-east Scotland. The book explores the area's underworld and features the grave-robbers, jail-breakers, rioters and other lawbreakers whose crimes led them to premature deaths at the end of a rope or at the not so delicate hands of The Maiden, a gruesome decapitating device predating the French guillotine. The stories of the men who enforced the law and meted out sentences to the ne'er-do-wells who broke it can be just as interesting and memorable as those of the criminals and Norman Adams introduces the reader to some of them. Here you'll find some real characters such as the Aberdeenshire sheriff and criminal officer who always got his man - once spending two chilling nights chained to a brutal murderer and rapist. And it wasn't just hangings that these men had to perform - their grisly work also involved execution by beheading and drowning, often with some witch-burning for good measure. The many true-crime cases in this book shed new light on just how violent and bloody the north-east of Scotland's past was.

A fascinating novel based on the life of the infamous baby farmer Minnie Dean, the only woman in New Zealand history ever to be hanged. Accused of infanticide and awaiting trial and then sentence, Minnie confides in Reverend Lindsay. Alternating between these two contrasting personalities, the novel tells Minnie's version of events. From her oppressive upbringing in Victorian Scotland to adulthood in Southland, Minnie battles her own nature and the hardships of colonial life and social hypocrisy. Once Minnie is tried, she has to face her impending execution, while Reverend Lindsay, who has become her unlikely ally, fights to prevent her paying the ultimate price for society's sins.

‘There is no one-volume book in print that carries so much valuable information on London and its history’ Illustrated London News The London Encyclopaedia is the most comprehensive book on London ever published. In its first new edition in over ten years, completely revised and updated, it comprises some 6,000 entries, organised alphabetically, cross-referenced and supported by two large indexes – one for the 10,000 people mentioned in the text and one general – and is illustrated with over 500 drawings, prints and photographs. Everything of relevance to the history, culture, commerce and government of the capital is documented in this phenomenal book. From the very first settlements through to the skyline of today, The London Encyclopaedia comprehends all that is London. ‘Written in very accessible prose with a range of memorable quotations and affectionate jokes...a monumental achievement written with real love’ Financial Times