A Handbook on Hanging: Being a Short Introduction to the Fine Art of Execution - Tapa blanda

A very deadly squib... likely to upset the equanimity of upholders of capital punishment far more than any ponderous tome of "high explosive" argument or invective. * Observer *

A Handbook on Hanging is a satiric tribute to that unappreciated mainstay of civilisation: the hangman. With barbed wit, Charles Duff not only writes of hanging, but also of electrocution, decapitation and gassing; of innocent men executed and of executions botched; of bloodlust mobs and the political expedients of the great. A classic satire, admired by Bertholt Brecht and Dylan Thomas, Duff's polemic makes it clear that whatever else capital punishment may be said to be - justice, vengeance, a deterrent - it is certainly killing.