Gentlemen Rogues and Wicked Ladies : A Guide to British Highwaymen and Highwaywomen

Everyone loves a romantic rogue whose exciting exploits feature a cheeky disregard for the law, narrow escapes and lots of love interest. Even at the height of highway robbery activity in the eighteenth century, it was thought that the death penalty was too harsh for these wayward scoundrels. There was the ever-courteous Claude Duval, the epitome of gentlemanliness; the infamous Katherine Ferrers, who was the inspiration for the film The Wicked Lady; Dick Turpin, the most famous highwayman of them all; and lesser-known characters such as Tom Rowland, who dressed as a woman to avoid capture. All these and more form an entertaining volume that follows the mounted thief in their endless match against the law and a death by public hanging.