Mark P. Donnelly – författare

Detailed plans based on careful study and measurement of original pieces and accurate reproductions. Step-by-step instructions, materials lists, and notes on woodworking, metalworking, and finishing. 36 photos and 159 line drawings illustrate how to construct each project. Includes an extensive resource guide. Foreword by Roy Underhill of the PBS series The Woodwright's Shop.

For millennia, mankind has devised ingenious and diabolical means of inflicting pain on fellow human beings. This deplorable but seemingly universal trait has eaten away at mankind’s very claim to civilisation. Despite how repugnant the practice of torture appears to us today, for at least 3,000 years it formed part of most legal codes throughout Europe and the Far East. The Big Book of Pain is an exploration of the systematic use throughout the ages of various means of punishment, torture, coercion and torment. It takes the reader into the Ancient Roman Coliseum, the medieval dungeon, the Inquisitional interrogation, the auto-da-fe, the witch-trial, and the worst of prisons. It is a shocking and compelling study of the shameful methods and motives of the torturer and the executioner, and of the heinous duty they have performed through the ages.

Pirates and privateers (thieves who had the blessings of their home countries) were major players in Chesapeake Bay history. For nearly 200 years, pirates roamed the Bay’s waters looking for prey and outfitting themselves to search for prizes in other parts of the world.In the early 17th century, pirates settled near the southern portion of the Chesapeake Bay, increasing the possibility of pirate attacks in the region. As the young Virginia colony flourished and commerce with Europe expanded, pirates and privateers found plenty of opportunities to prey upon vessels.The first act of piracy was committed on the Chesapeake in 1635. William Claiborne, who owned a plantation on Kent Island, Maryland, sent his agent to capture a small boat as it approached Palmer's Island at the head of the Bay. Fueled by growing tensions between Maryland and Virginia, Claiborne– a Virginian – was angry that the Maryland boat had invaded his plantation’s territory. This event kicked off almost 200 years of piracy on the Bay.Even though they victimized colonial ships, pirates were often tolerated and even courted by governors, merchants and citizens of the colonies. In some ways, supporting piracy marked their growing desire to be independent from England. Pirates sold colonial merchants the black market goods they could not buy from England.Despite their apparent prosperity, most pirates led hard lives and died early. Life aboard pirate vessels was miserable. The wooden ships were dank and moldy, and stank of waste, rotted meat and unwashed bodies. Pirates’work was unending. Half a crew could be lost to disease on a single voyage. If pirates did not succumb to disease, they could easily lose their life or limbs in battle. And, on occasion, punishment awaited them when they returned to shore.The brutal life onboard and the likelihood of injury or death did not dissuade all seamen from becoming pirates. The slim possibility of financial reward was a strong incentive. Although many pirates died with little to their names, others somehow managed to thwart authority and find riches.

• Full-color, revised edition • Plans for weddings, holiday parties, and Renaissance fairs • Ideas for properly decorating the dining hall • Lyrics and music for songs and dances • Recipes for food and drink • Patterns for period costumes • Games and plays

High adventure, dastardly deeds, and newly uncovered lore.

High adventure, dastardly deeds, and newly uncovered lore.

‘Highly enjoyable’ – Ancestors‘A fascinating recreation of the Tower as the life-and-death blood of the nation’ – Oxford TimesServing as both a palace and a prison, the Tower of London has been at the centre of more intrigue, terror and crucial turning points in history than any other site in England. Diehl and Donnelly take us behind the grim, grey walls which circumscribe England’s greatest fortress to discover true stories of the rebels, rogues, despots, lovers, spies and conmen who lived or were held captive there, and whose various, strange fates have added to the Tower’s sinister reputation. It is a place where court intrigues, clandestine liaisons, gruesome tortures and grisly executions took place with frightening regularity.Tales from the Tower of London is more than the factual history of a great building; it is storytelling at its best. The fifteen stories in this book are made all the more poignant by the fact that they are all true and focus on individuals royal and common, good and bad, heroic and villainous, who lived, loved, plotted and died there.The characters you will meet include:William the Conqueror Richard II and the forlorn ‘Princes in the Tower' Wat Tyler Lady Jane Grey Guy Fawkes Colonel Thomas Blood Henry Laurens Sir Roger Casement Whether you are a lover of history, adventure, intrigue and romance, or just appreciate a ripping good yarn, you will find Tales from the Tower of London a classic page turner.

For thousands of years, human beings have come up with many ingenious and cruel methods to inflict pain on similar people. This sad but seemingly universal feature corrodes the civilization that mankind seeks. Although we now seem to hate torture, it has been an integral part of most laws throughout Europe and the Far East for more than 3,000 years. A Brief History of Human Torture explores various forms of punishment, torture, persecution. It takes readers into the ancient Roman arena, medieval dungeons, inquisitions, inquisitions, witch trials and the cruelest prisons. This is a shocking and convincing study, revealing the shameful means and motivations of the torturers and the executioners, as well as the heinous acts they have done throughout the history.

This book systematically examines the social roots and historical evolution of cruel tortures implemented from ancient times to the 20th century, covers the East in ancient times, ancient Greece and Rome, the Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the West in the modern and contemporary times, as well as countries and regions in the pre-modern period, such as China, India, Japan and African countries, and lists various kinds of cruel tortures in history that are so horrible that people could hardly bear to look at or have never even heard of before.

Cannibalism is unquestionably one of the oldest and deepest-seated taboos. Even in an age when almost nothing is sacred, religious, moral and social prohibitions surround the topic. But even as our minds recoil at the mention of actual acts of cannibalism there is some dark fascination with the subject. Appalling crimes of humans eating other humans are blown into major news stories and gory movies: both Hitchcock's Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were based on the crimes of Ed Gein, who is profiled, along with others, in this book. In Eat Thy Neighbour the authors put the subject of cannibalism into its social and historical perspective.