Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in the world – with one of the darkest histories on record. Sweeping through the centuries in a blood-soaked catalogue of assaults, assassinations and all-out attempts at annihilation, this volume reveals the hideous tapestry of death, disease and disaster that lies beneath Edinburgh's stunning façade. You'll never see the city in the same way again…

Britain has an incredible history, steeped in all manner of blood, death, disease and horror. From cannibals to concentration camps, Geoff Holder covers events both great and gory from Britain's terrible past, with kings, queens and pretenders to the throne; sea battles, massacres and attacks from the air. This collection explores it all, with hundreds of amazing true stories, including seven ill-judged attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria and the Gestapo's secret plans ...

Graverobbing was a dark but profitable industry in pre-Victorian Scotland – criminals, gravediggers and middle-class medical students alike abstracted newly-buried corpses to send to the anatomy schools. Only after the trials of the infamous murderers Burke and Hare and the passing of the Anatomy Act of 1832 did the grisly trade end. From burial grounds in the heart of Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh to quiet country graveyards in the Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire, this...

In 1945 the celebrated psi-researcher Harry Price published Poltergeist over England, popularising the word poltergeist (German for 'noisy ghost') and making famous the kind of physical haunting characterised by thrown objects, mysterious noises, and damage by fire or water. Now, for the first time, an astonishing array of historical Scottish poltergeist cases are gathered together, from the Middle Ages to the modern period - unearthing many episodes that have rem...

With the country's oldest university and the ruins of both a magnificent castle and one of the grandest cathedrals of medieval Europe, St Andrews is one of the most beautiful and historic places in Scotland. But it's also one of the most haunted. Here are investigations into St Andrews' most famous ghost (the White Lady) and its most famous paranormal location (the Haunted Tower, with its real-life Victorian mystery of mummified bodies); the numerous phantoms, historical a...

The Little Book of Edinburgh is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information which no-one will want to be without. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and literally hundreds of wacky facts. Geoff Holder's new book contains historic and contemporary trivia on Edinburgh. There are lots of factual chapters but also plenty of fr...

The author of Poltergeist Over Scotland embarks on an in-depth study of the characteristics that imbue the paranormal world's "noisy ghosts."What Is a Poltergeist? is an introduction to the mysterious phenomenon examining the theories and presenting the latest research evidence for poltergeist activity.In trying to define a poltergeist, author Geoff Holder ponders such questions as: Are they the restless souls of the dead? Demons? Witches'...

It is one of the most astonishing monuments in the British Isles, never mind Scotland. Deep in the Perthshire countryside stands a cairn of boulders topped with a tall, spindly cross, the stones painted with the stark words:MAggie Wallburnt here1657 as a WitchThere is nothing like it anywhere: a historic monument to a named witch. There is, it is true, the occasional plaque here and there in Scotland to the events of the witchcraft era; but these are modern re...

Did you know?One of the biggest battles between the Scots and the English was fought in France.The success of his first book of poems saved Robert Burns from working on a slave plantation.Six craters on Mars are named after places in Scotland.The Little Book of Scotland is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information that no one will want to be...

FULL DETAILS of where to find – and how to kill – all of Britain's most historic zombies FACT FILES on the undead in history, including ROMAN REVENANTS, people who were BURIED ALIVE and some RESURRECTED ROYAL CORPSES! HIGH-PROFILE TARGETS including JANE AUSTEN, HENRY VIII, RICHARD III and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Are you worried about the zombie apocalypse? Kept awake imagining you'll only manage to take out a few before that chap at No. 9 gets you? Well, fret no more! Clasp a copy of this book...

Aberdeen is full of mysteries, marvels and strangeness, and this book is a comprehensive guide to them all. Here you will encounter magic, witchcraft, folklore and superstitions; contemporary urban legends; gargoyles and graveyards; graverobbers and murderers; stone circles and prehistoric burial sites; UFOs and freak weather; and tales of horror, madness, humour – and dangerous porridge. Many forgotten aspects of the city's strange history are here, from the disturbing (s...

From reports of haunted castles, hotels, public houses, chapels and churchyards, to heart-stopping accounts of apparitions, poltergeists and related supernatural phenomena, this collection of stories contains both well-known and hitherto unpublished tales from around the city of Aberdeen. This spine-tingling selection includes Fyvie Castle, home to the Green Lady; Aberdeen Central Library, where the ghost of a former librarian still helps customers; the Four Mile Inn, whos...