London's Dead

'During the Gordon Riots of 1780 the London mob stormed Langdale's Distillery in Holborn. As the raw spirit caught fire, a pillar of flame reached up to the sky, hot gin ran down the road and locals began to gorge themselves, screaming from the internal burns and keeling over dead drunk, or simply dead.'

London's Dead unearths some of the capital's most gruesome and intriguing stories: from the serene order of the capital's finest Victorian graveyards to the most horrific crimes committed in its ancient streets. Here are the deaths of politicians and comedians, royals and spies, peasants and highwaymen. There are tragic deaths, accidental deaths, hoax deaths, pre–planned deaths, death while dancing, death from laughing. There is death by hanging, death by knifing, death by drinking, death by drowning, death by disease, death by explosion, death by poisoning, death by strangulation. Ed Glinert explores the city's many and varied final resting places: cemeteries, graveyards, churchyards – and less official burial sites, from holes in the ground to concrete flyovers – giving us the full story of London and its dead.

Ed Glinert was born in Dalston, London. He is the author of The London Compendium, Literary London and East End Chronicles, as well as editing the Sherlock Holmes stories and the complete works of Gilbert and Sullivan for Penguin Classics. Ed leads a variety of walks for a major London walking tours company.