Brewer's Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics [Hardcover]

William Donaldson (aka Willie Donaldson) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2002

Presenting the Hall of Shame! Both entertaining and indiscreet, this dictionary of callous cads introduces a host of wildly colorful characters. Here are assassins and arsonists, hangmen and horse thieves, hell-raisers and highwaymen, not to mention an array of poisoners, quacks, and forgers. Meet Ronald Biggs, one of the participants of the Great Train Robby, and Julie Amiri, a thief who found being detained by policemen...very exciting. There's enough degradation, depravity, and dottiness to delight anyone. A Selection of the Readers Subscription Book Club.

Editorial Reviews

Review

We've had some excellent coverage for this book. Willie was on LOOSE ENDS (BBC Radio 4) on 28 September and has also done the following local radio interviews THE DAVID PRIVA SHOW (LBC), THE ROBERT ELMS SHOW (BBC LONDON LIVE), THEBRIAN MORTON SHOW (BBC RADIO SCOTLAND), THREE COUNTIES RADIO and BBC RADIO LEICESTER. The following local radio stations have run competitions with the book - BBC RADIO GUERNSEY, BBC RADIO NOTTINGHAM, BBC HEREFORD & WORCESTER,SCOT FM, BBC RADIO SOLENT, BBC WILTSHIRE SOUND. The excellent interview withWillie ran in the INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY magazine on 27 October and last month he was featured in the INDEPENDENT'S Passed/Failed slot. We've had diary stories in THE DAILY EXPRESS, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH and BOOKSELLER. John Walsh gave it a wonderful plug in his column in THE INDEPENDENT as has Terence Blacker in his column Reviews have been excellent 'This is not a serious book by any means, but it is a welcome relief from the usual hagiographies found in Debrett's and Who's Who, which will set very comfortably on the bookshelves of those who have given up hope of an entry in either.'Ross Golden Bannon, THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST 'I have not laughed so much in years, nor been so relieved that I did not know an author. You enter the world of William Donaldson at yourperil.'Byron Rogers, THE SPECTATOR 'This is probably the greatest bathroom book yet written.'Steve Jelbert, THE TIMES 'The most unputdownable anthology.... there's much to savour about this volume'John Walsh, THE INDEPENDENT 'In this breathtaking triumph of misdirected scholarship, Donaldson has found the ideal outlet for his splenetic wit and healthy disrespect for the great and the good.'Robert Chalmers, THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'This new 600-page encyclopedia is the funniest book of the year, and quite possibly of all time.'Francis Wheen, THE WEEK 'There is plenty here to titillate and entertain...... ifyou are curious to know who bottle-fed a porpoise in a railway waiting room (Francis Trevelyan Buckland), or which king died after being bitten by a monkey (Prince Phillip's father), or whose feet were cut off so that he could fitinto his sarcophagus (the 10th Duke of Hamilton) or which hangman later became a hairdresser (John Ellis), then this book is for you. It will make a goodbog-book, with oodles of human quiddity and notoriety to detain you.'Christopher Silvester, THE EXPRESS 'This book aims to catalogue the infamous and egregious from the 'undergrowth' of British and Irish history, and it certainly achieves this.'Charlie Campbell, LITERARY REVIEW 'The publishers wanted a 'browsable and addictive collection of pen portraits of 1,500 extraordinary characters' and Donaldson's flair for finding the extraordinary has fulfilled this brief amply - giving readers a glorious gawp into the lives of outsiders and outlaws past and present.'THE BIG ISSUE BREWER'S ROGUES VILLAINS AND ECCENTRICS has also been mentioned in a number of Christmas round-ups. We had an extremely successful launch on Tuesday 8 October at the Pan Bookshop in the Fulham Road, with a wonderful array of villains and eccentrics there from Frankie Fraser to Sebastian Hawsley.

About the Author

Willie Donaldson has led an extraordinary and colourful life - from his privileged public-school education to an untidy lifestyle in the company of pop stars, actors, models and others. He is the author of the various volumes in the 'Henry Root' series and of numerous other humorous titles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Cassell; First edition & printing edition (October 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304357286
• ISBN-13: 978-0304357284
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.7 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,993,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobody does "eccentrics" like the Brits!!, December 6, 2003

By 

Nagronsky "Nagronsky" (Skagit Valley, Wa USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brewer's Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics (Hardcover)

Everything you never knew that you wanted to know about the oddballs, rogues, cads, scoundrels, footpads, and other non-conformists who made the "Sceptered Isle" what it is (and was). I bought this book since I really enjoyed "The Henry Root Letters" and "Root Into Europe", and subsquently gave the hard cover edition of this to friends in London for Christmas, & they "adore" it. Our old friend the 5th Duke of Portland is well represented(see "Ballroom, construction of one underground"), as are swindlers, the Krays, women who served as men in the Army, train robbers, etc. The list truly does go on and on. If you are familiar with "Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels", Lenny "the Guv'nor" McLean, The Guv'norwho played Barry The Baptist, and Vinnie Jones, who played Big Chris are both subjects of bios here, but although I mostly seem to be citing criminals in this review, there is far, far more to this book. I highly and unreservedly recommend this! This is a great one to keep close at hand, just when you want to read something "odd". When I heard "Willie" Donaldson had died, I read some obits of him in the UK press, & they were WONDERFUL. A womanizing, drunken druggie....no wonder his entries about Keith Moon and Brian Jones sound so accurate...and he dumped Carly Simon back in the '60's, & rumours say "You're So Vain" was about Willie. Whatta guy!!

By the way, if you're a William Donaldson fan, check out YOU CANNOT LIVE AS I HAVE LIVED AND NOT END UP LIKE THIS: THE THOROUGHLY DISGRACEFUL LIFE AND TIMES OF WILLIE DONALDSON by Terence Blacker....Donaldson was even weirder than I'd thought....but that's not such a bad thing.