Author Chris McCooey writes about events which have shocked and scandalised people over the years Ð forced child labour, grave robbing, highway robbery, prisoners held in appalling conditions, the excessive drinking of smugglers and hop pickers, unsolved crimes of murder and rape. He also records the people who did not care what others thought about them Ð the sexually liberated courtesan Kitty Fisher and the free spirited Freda Barton and Edith Nesbit; not to mention the voracious appetites, one for men and the other for women, of Noel Coward and HG Wells. Add to this a cricket sporting scandal, major health scares, a parrot fancier fraudster, a saucy postcard illustrator charged with obscenity and a huge bomb waiting to go off Ð and you have, hopefully, a good read.