The Hangman is available in both print and ebook format.
Despite the unsettling subject matter, the reader is compelled to delve deeper into the mind of
the hangman.
45 am SATURDAY Final call for hanging is given to
the hangmanDundee-born Kidd, who sailed vast tracts of the world's oceans, from the Caribbean to Madagascar, and was said to have tortured prisoners with cutlasses, almost escaped
the hangman when the rope broke but eventually met his doom at the second attempt.
Metaphorically, though,
the hangman is actually many things and many people.
The hangman started working as an executioner seven years ago and was trained for the job while serving a 30-year murder sentence - passed down when he was aged only 16 - for murder.
But, turning away from what might be seen as the more traditional crime fiction genre, Dancing for
the Hangman is a major departure for the writer, who has carved out a name for himself as the creator of Liverpool detective Harry Devlin, before turning his attention to his series of Lake District-based crime novels.
Klemettila (not further identified) focuses on the period from the 14th century to the early 16th, a period during which the office of
the hangman became established in the European penal system; there was an increasing demand for professional executioners as capital and corporal penalties became the responsibility of the state and other public authorities; and
the hangman's representation was actively exploited, shaped, and modified for various reasons by various social and cultural groups in various religious and secular contexts.
Dhananjaya Chatterjee, 39, was executed at dawn by
the hangman in the courtyard of Alipora Correctional Home, Calcutta, where he has spent the last 13 years in solitary confinement.
Back in England, the Year of
the Hangman, 1777, finds the lazy and spoiled 15-year-old Creighton Brown in bad company, drinking and losing money at cards.
DAVID Pritchard's story (You Say, February 15) of
the hangman was really enlightening and interesting.
We also used to drink in another pub in Hollinwood, Oldham, called Help The Poor Struggler, where the landlord was Albert Pierrepoint,
the hangman.
