Vlad the Impaler: Son of the Devil, Hero of the People (Devil's Histories) - Softcover

Vlad the Impaler: Son of the Devil, Hero of the People not only brings to life one of history’s most compelling and brutal characters, but traces his bizarre afterlife. A hero to his countrymen, Vlad Dracula became a byword for dread. Not just for generations of Western fans of Gothic fiction and film, but also for his fifteenth-century contemporaries, whose appalled fascination made accounts of Dracula’s atrocities into the world’s first horror bestsellers. Combining historical research and dramatic reconstruction, with groundbreaking contemporary reference, Vlad the Impaler includes his dramatic career, from pampered captive of the Ottoman Sultans, to exterminating angel of Christian vengeance. See the Impaler as fascist idol and communist icon?was he the model ruler of an embattled realm or the embodiment of unbridled cruelty?

Gavin Baddeley is an author, journalist, and broadcaster who has carved a unique niche as a leading international expert on all things macabre. He has been employed in television as a black magic consultant and has been dubbed by the Journal of Popular Culture as ?the patron saint of Gothic journalism.” Paul Woods has written several books in the genres of crime, popular culture, cult cinema, and pulp fiction. He is the author of Ed Gein: Psycho, a popular retelling of the case that inspired Hitchcock's legendary film Psycho. He is also a successful TV researcher.