<p>Genuine weirdness is a rare quality. To be truly weird demands character and wanton disregard for the social mores of the day.</p><p>Unleashed in <b>Tales of the Weirrd</b> 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:<ul><li />Charles Charlesworth, who grew a beard at age four and died of old age at the age of seven<li />Old Boots, who could hold a piece of money between his nose and chin<li />Barbara Urselin, the hairy-faced woman<li />Henry Lemoine, an eccentric bookseller<li />Guillaume de Nittis, who tried to eat himself<li />Fakir Agastiya, who kept his arm in the air for ten years<li />Neville Vadio, the blind caricaturist, who was claimed by many to be a better draughtsman than Rembrandt.</ul></p><p><b>Tales of the Weirrd</b> is an extraordinary celebration of the bizarre brought to life by the astonishing energy, imagination and power of Ralph Steadman's pen.</p>