A Grim Almanac of Sussex Paperback

For his "Grim Almanac of Sussex", well-known local writer and criminologist Johnnie Johnson has discovered a sinister, macabre or horrifying occurrence for every day of the year, and presents to his readers 365 graphic, spine-tingling and dramatic events.

The wicked, the mad, the foolish, the unfortunate parade through the pages - barefist prizefighters, poachers, witches, rioters, cholera victims, wife-sellers and the condemned, standing on the gallows awaiting their fate.

There are terrible accidents here such as: trains crash, buses overturn, airships burst into flames; there are explosions and suicides, buildings collapse and ships are lost along the treacherous coast. And then there are the likes of Patrick Mahon dismembering his lady friend, the charmer John George Haigh getting rid of his victims in an acid bath, and smugglers who buried a man alive and threw another to his death down a well.

Johnnie Johnson's new book is generously illustrated with a range of engravings, paintings, photographs, public notices, cartoons and original documents.

This chronicle of all that is grim and ghastly is an entertaining and readable alternative history of Sussex.