Executions have played a crucial part in British history- if a grisly and controversial one - and provided the bloody climax to many a British life, from Mary, Queen of Scots, Charles I and Dick Turpin to untold thousands of anonymous wretches whose names are now obscure. Stephen Banks here details the history of formal execution in Britain, examining the fates of the grandest monarchs, the highest-profile gentlemen, the most learned heretics and the most petty of criminals. He looks also at the crowds, spectacle and grim pageantry that surrounded these events, helping the reader to understand their morbid but undeniable fascination with dozens of colour illustrations, and details the process that led to capital punishment's abolition in Britain.
