The Most Evil men and Women in History by Miranda Twiss

The Most Evil Men and Women in History by Miranda Twiss is published to coincide with the Channel 5 series of the same name, revealing 16 complete profiles of men and women who have used their power to torture, kill, maim and eradicate millions of people.

Spanning nearly 2,000 years - from the birth of Caligula in the Roman Empire of 12AD to the genocide of the Cambodian people during the 1980s - each profile reveals the true horrors of the wickedness. All were motivated by power, religion, lust and political belief, ensuring their names became bywords for terror throughout the world.

These evil rulers were prepared to do anything for power. From Caligula who murdered relatives, tortured and executed many citizens and Nero, Fifth Emporer of Rome who murdered his own mother to King John, King of England, who alienated both the church and the barons by being ruthless, cruel, cold-hearted, devious and scheming and Vlad Tepes Dracula, 'The Impaler', a Wallachian prince and warlord, who earned his nickname by having his victims impaled on long sticks ensuring a long, agonising death and then drinking their blood to Bloody Mary, Queen of England and Ireland, earning her name after executing some 300 Protestants, often after torture and Attila the Hun whose notorious army almost changed the course of Europe's ancestry.

These are just a few revelations brought to life in The Most Evil Men and Women in History - a fascinating study of the manifestation of true evil in men and women throughout human history.

"What makes evil so fascinating? Glancing over the pages of history, it is difficult to find any subject that has puzzled the intelligence of mankind more than the subject of evil. A book outlining the history of man's inhumanity to man is somehow more gripping than one detailing peoples' good deeds. Evil destroys the integrity, the happiness and the welfare of a 'normal' society, yet we are absorbed by it, maybe in the hope that we will learn from our mistakes but more likely from a perverse desire to hear of others' misfortunes whilst we placate ourselves with the thought that it could never happen to us."

(Miranda Twiss - The Most Evil men and Women in History, Introduction)

Author Details
Miranda Twiss is a Londoner. She took her BA in History & English at Goldsmiths College and her MA in Historical Research at Birbeck. She has written articles for the Evening Standard, The Sunday Times and Vogue Magazine. This is her first book.