The British Execution: 1500–1964: 744 (Shire Library) - Softcover

Executions have played a crucial - if grisly and controversial - part in British history and provided the bloody climax to many a life, from Mary, Queen of Scots, Charles I and Dick Turpin to untold thousands of anonymous wretches whose names are now forgotten. With the help of numerous illustrations, Stephen Banks 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 us to understand their morbid but undeniable fascination and detailing the process that led to capital punishment's abolition in Britain.

Stephen Banks is a university lecturer and director of the Forum for Legal and Historical Research at the University of Reading and his main research interests are in law, anthropology and cultural history, with a particular focus on violence and the relationship between law and honour culture. He also wrote Duels and Duelling for Shire.