Thomas Paine developed his political and economic thought in Lewes the county town of East Sussex. He was selected from 2700 officers of excise to write the pamphlet The Case of the Officers of Excise. Plucked from obscurity Paine honed his skills in Lewes to write Common Sense just after he left Lewes for the North American Colonies. This book shows Lewes as a dissenting, bustling independent town, a place where Paine could sit as a Juryman on the Court Leet and oversee the poor law. This...

How do you like your weirdness? A subtle nudge towards the untoward? A quick zap of zany? Or a full-on assault of aberration? Whatever your taste, you'll find it here, and many more strains of strange that you didn't suspect existed. From magic rain to a talking (severed) head, extraordinary eggs to belligerent birds, the stories in this collection enter the rabbit hole to explore its hidden corners and winding ways. Through all the variety, what they have in common is originality, creativ...