The history of science is littered with mad, bad and delightfully dotty inventions, from the bicycle that relied for its momentum on the rider waggling his head back and forth continually to the Improved Pneumatic Advertising Hat - a bowler that hurled a lit-up billboard into the air at the touch of a button - or the suitcase that turned into a small boat for the nervous ferry passenger. Here is the chance to sample, among other delights, Professor Ray's Nose Adjusting Machine, Admiral Popov's Circular Warship, The Perfect Sleeping Partner (a Japanese pillow shaped just like a man with an arm fitted at the right angle for a comforting cuddle) and last, but by no means least, Calantarient's Improved Dung Trap for Carriage Horses Employed by Ladies of Fashion and those of a Delicate Constitution.

Fishing's Strangest Days

by Tom Quinn

Published 21 November 2002

Fishing's Strangest Tales gathers together choice stories and bizarre fishing tales from all over the world. Consider the Oxford scientist who in 1910 discovered the marvellous life-giving properties of brandy to fish who had otherwise gasped their last. Or how about the nine-year-old boy fishing for trout who caught a large mussel - containing no less than forty pearls - and managed to earn more in one day than his father, a farm worker, had earned in the last five years. Fishing's Strangest Days is full of fascinating tales that may sound fishy and unbelievable but will have have you caught hook, line and sinker.

Word count: 45,000


London's Strangest Tales

by Tom Quinn

Published 30 March 2008

London’s Strangest Tales takes a walk on London’s weirder side with an absorbing collection of curious tales from one of the world’s greatest cities. This fascinating book is packed with amazing things you didn’t know about Britain’s capital, like the fact that it’s still forbidden to run, carry an umbrella or whistle in the Burlington Arcade, and the fat lamppost at the corner of Trafalgar Square that is secretly a tiny prison cell. And did you know that the entrance to Buckingham Palace you see from the Mall is actually the back door and not the front? The stories within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true.

Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of London-lovers, this book is a brilliant alternative guide to the city, whether you’re a visitor, a daily commuter or one of its 8 million inhabitants.

Word count: 45,000


Fishing's Strangest Tales

by Tom Quinn

Published 9 February 2017

Extraordinary but true stories from over two hundred years of angling history.

Fishing's Strangest Tales gathers together choice stories and bizarre fishing tales from all over the world. Consider the Oxford scientist who in 1910 discovered the marvellous life-giving properties of brandy to fish who had otherwise gasped their last. Or how about the nine-year-old boy fishing for trout who caught a large mussel – containing no less than forty pearls – and managed to earn more in one day than his father, a farm worker, had earned in the last five years? Fishing's Strangest Days is full of fascinating tales that may sound fishy and unbelievable but will have have you caught hook, line and sinker.


In their many guises military battles have shaped the course of history and in 'Military's Strangest Campaigns & Characters', Tom Quinn takes a look at some of the finest battles ever to be fought. Among the 100 or so stories, there's the extraordinary 'Battle That Never Was' between two Celtic tribes that never began (you will have to read the book to find out why), the ill-fated launch of the Russian warship Novgorod and the Victoria Cross winner who seemed absolutely determined to die, yet survived completely unscathed against all odds. There's also the tale of Vladmimir Peniakoff who was keen to read Milton's 'Paradise Lost' despite an angry buzz of planes overhead.