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Genuine weirdness is a rare quality. To be truly weird demands character and wanton disregard for the social mores of the day.

Unleashed in Tales of the Weirrd is Ralph Steadman's fantastic interpretations and biographies of nineteenth century grotesques, oddities, imposters and eccentrics. The book is a hilarious catalog of nature's freakish humor and, in the best Victorian tradition, it instructs as well as entertains. This crazy collection of dwarfs, and gluttons, wits and water-spouters includes:

• Charles Charlesworth, who grew a beard at age four and died of old age at the age of seven
• Old Boots, who could hold a piece of money between his nose and chin
• Barbara Urselin, the hairy-faced woman
• Henry Lemoine, an eccentric bookseller
• Guillaume de Nittis, who tried to eat himself
• Fakir Agastiya, who kept his arm in the air for ten years
• Neville Vadio, the blind caricaturist, who was claimed by many to be a better draughtsman than Rembrandt.

Tales of the Weirrd is an extraordinary celebration of the bizarre brought to life by the astonishing energy, imagination and power of Ralph Steadman's pen.