Grisly and blackly humorous, the book details the gruesome history of torture, restraint and punishment from the days of the Normans to the late nineteenth century. How it must have felt to be faced with horrifying torture and to have lived during a time when torture was considered an acceptable form of punishment, is chillingly conveyed through eyewitness accounts of the time. This is a fascinating account of torture, in all its various and gruesome guises and provides vivid insights into the lives and times of both torturers and tortured.