Crucifixion & Criminality

2000 Years of English prisons & punishment

Two thousand years of fear, power, rebellion — and the endless question of how a society controls those who break its rules.

Crucifixion & Criminality is a thrilling, immersive ride through England’s darkest cells, bloodiest rituals, and most astonishing transformations in crime and punishment. From the moment the first blow is struck on an Anglo‑Saxon hillside to the cold steel doors of the modern prison, this book pulls readers into a world shaped by terror, authority, ingenuity, and survival.

Step inside…

The age of feud and fire, where a killing sparked spirals of revenge and justice was bought in blood and silver.
Trial by ordeal, where innocence was tested by boiling water, burning iron, or the belief that God would reveal the truth.
Norman fortresses turned into prisons, where stone corridors whispered with political intrigue, royal power, and quiet despair.
The rise of kings’ justice, forging the legal machinery that still governs us today.
The Bloody Code, a world where hundreds of offences meant death and public executions became roaring theatre.
Prison hulks and transportation, where Britain punished not just with confinement but with distance, exile, and ocean‑crossing terror.
The brutal precision of Victorian discipline, where treadwheels, solitary cells, and silent systems aimed to break and remake human souls.
Great reformers and relentless administrators—from John Howard to the architects of modern prisons—fighting to redefine what justice should look like.
The infamous gaols—Newgate, Lancaster, Shepton Mallet, Gloucester Castle—each a stage where real lives collided with the state’s hunger for control.

Across every century, every regime, every philosophy, the story pulses with one truth:

Punishment is never just about crime — it is about power, fear, identity, and the kind of society we choose to build.

Richly detailed, dramatically told, and unapologetically vivid, Crucifixion & Criminality transforms 2,000 years of English justice into an unforgettable journey through human resilience, cruelty, reform, and the strange, shifting logic of punishment itself.

If you want history that grips like a thriller and reveals the beating heart of a nation through its darkest corners — this is the book.