DEATH by hanging: it’s a dark and disturbing subject. But for author Amanda Howard it’s a fascinating one. So much so that she stepped away from her special interest in serial crime to write a book on the subject.
And while the book is by its very nature grim, it is by no means ghoulish and it’s not hard to share her fascination.
Years in the writing, it takes the reader on a journey through the history of hanging, detailing the evolution of what was once a common method of capital punishment.
From the development of the drop to the invention of the gallows, readers will be enlightened on the mechanisms of the act of hanging as well as famous executioners like Albert Pierrepoint and William Calcraft, and those they dispatched.
Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, it looks at the famously condemned, the wrongly executed, those who escaped the noose, and hangings gone wrong.
It ranges across topics as varied as political hangings, questionable hangings, animal executions, last requests and the abolition of the death penalty.
Perhaps controversially, it also takes a candid look at suicide, touching upon suicide prevention.
Clearly, it’s not for those of a more delicate disposition, but Howard’s zest for her subject is such that it’s hard for it not to rub off.
- Rope: A History of the Hanged, published by New Holland, RRP $26.99.
