Brewer's rogues, villains and eccentrics - William Donaldson

'The funniest book of the year, and quite possibly of all time'

Francis Wheen, Mail on Sunday

Everyone loves a rogue. Take Louis de Rougemont, pearl diver, alligator hunter and King of the Cannibals, who was allegedly shipwrecked off the coast of New Guinea and survived by clinging to the tail of the ship's dog. Or Archbishop Lancelot Blackburne, who tired of waiting for heavenly rewards and became a swashbuckling pirate, rumoured to have employed Dick Turpin as his butler.

From assassins and arsonists to hell-raisers and highwaymen, plus an array of poisoners, strumpets, quacks, and forgers, BREWER'S, ROGUES, VILLAINS and ECCENTRICS is a hugely entertaining miscellany of bizarre Britons through the ages. Including the famous, infamous and downright dangerous, you couldn't ask for a better gallery of Britain's most outrageous characters.