This is the history of Oxford as you have never encountered it before.The first historical record of Oxford laments that the city has been burnt to the ground by Vikings. Its religious houses were founded by a woman who blinded her would-be attacker. Its students were poverty-stricken desperados in perpetual armed conflict with the townsmen. One of its principal colleges, meanwhile, doubled as a slaughterhouse -- and its richest streets and university edifices backed on to some of the most pestilential slums in England.With a mangled skeleton in every cupboard, this is the real story of the Oxford. Read it if you dare!

Paul Sullivan is a specialist in folklore and in the stranger side of history, with many books to his name. His previous credits include researching, writing, and presenting a weekly festivals and customs guide for BBC Radio 5, and columns in publications as diverse as the Fortean Times, Living History (now part of BBC History Magazine) and the Sunday Express. He lives in Oxford.