Wharncliffe imprint: 191 books

Beggars, Cheats and Forgers is made up of new research into a neglected area of British history: the stories of historical scams, cheats and forgeries. Former Director of Technology at the National Archives, David Thomas has delved into the archives to uncover unusual tales, from Tudor identity theft...

A captivating history of doing time throughout the centuries: from England’s medieval dungeons to America’s supermax detention facilities.   The first prisons were castle hellholes, places of neglect, oblivion, and slow death. Every civilization has had its dissenters, deviants, and political...

A revealing criminal history of the old industrial town in North Lincolnshire, England, that has been home to centuries of dark secrets and twisted crimes.   As the iron and steel industries grew in the Victorian period, several villages merged into the town of Scunthorpe, an area with more than...

Foul Deeds in Islington takes the reader on a sinister journey through a selection of the most shocking and revealing murders committed in this part of north London during the last two centuries. Killers of all kinds are recorded here, from the coolest and most calculating of criminals to ill-starred...

Shocking portraits of women who have committed capital crimes in England’s capital city—from the author of Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia.   Women have sometimes been seen as less criminally inclined than men. But, as John J. Eddleston shows in this revealing anthology of female crimes in London,...

The criminal cases vividly described by Nicholas Corder in this gripping book take the reader on a journey into the dark secret side of Cumbria's long history. The hills, villages and market towns of this famous landscape have been the setting for a series of horrific, bloody, sometimes bizarre incidents...

The stormy past of England’s south coast city is vividly depicted in these true crime tales from the author of Jack the Ripper: An Encyclopedia.   The criminal cases vividly described by John J. Eddleston in this gripping book take the reader on a journey into the dark secret side of Southampton’s...

Whilst the passage of time can and has uncovered many secrets, killers could get away with their crimes in 1596 when Shakespeare penned these words and this is certainly the case in more recent times as Unsolved Murders in South Yorkshire clearly demonstrate. The early chapters include cases...

Maiming, brutal murders, crimes of passion, suicides and executions; Chesterfield has all these and more in 'Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Chesterfield'.The scenic landscape of Chesterfield presents a pleasant face to it's visitors, but a study of it's past shows that it has often been a dangerous...

Foul Deeds Around Crewe takes the reader on a fascinating journey through centuries of local crime and conspiracy, meeting villains of all sorts along the way - casual killers and robbers, murderous husbands and lovers, prostitutes and poisoners. This revealing book recalls many grisly events and...

True stories of real-life British mysteries and murders going back centuries—photos included.   This book tells stories of murder, deceit, and pure malice committed over the centuries in this traditionally rural part of East Anglia in England. From crimes of passion to opportunistic killings and...

A collection of historical British true crime stories, with illustrations included.   From the murder of Hannah Hewitt in 1732 to John Cotton’s killing in 1898, Deadly Derbyshire gathers dramatic, atmospheric true tales of murder and manslaughter in this county in England’s East Midlands.   Read...

The story of sixty years of Scotland Yards top crime-busting department has been written over a twenty year period by a former detective who spent over eight years with the Flying Squad The Sweeney.The meticulous research by the author has uncovered files never before released by the Yard and he has...

From Clifford Irving and his Howard Hughes hoax to the great imposter Frank “Catch Me if You Can” Abagnale—a fascinating history of the art of the con.   They’re shrewd, cunning, devious—and charmingly trustworthy. While the criminal exploits of these tricksters, frauds, and swindlers can’t...