The Book of Phobias and Manias

A History of the World in 99 Obsessions

By: Kate Summerscale

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Paperback | 5 October 2022

At a Glance

Paperback
256 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.1 x 13.6 x 21.5

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A thrilling compendium of our deepest fears and obsessions by the bestselling author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher.

Ever been struck dumb when speaking in public? You might be suffering from glossophobia. Do your book-buying habits verge on bibliomania? Do you recoil in arachnophobic horror at the sight of a spider - or twitch with nomophobia when you misplace your mobile phone?

Our fears and compulsions often feel like part of our deepest selves - yet they're bound up in the currents of the world around us. This thrilling compendium of 99 phobias and manias, rare and familiar, delves into the obsessions that shape us all. Award-winning author Kate Summerscale takes us from the Middle Ages to the present day, using rich and riveting case studies to trace the links between the private and the public, the personal and the political.

About the Author

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, winner of the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her debut, The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. The Wicked Boy, published in 2016, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. Her latest book, The Haunting of Alma Fielding, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. She lives in north London.

Industry Reviews

Praise for Kate Summerscale:

'Summerscale's brilliance lies not only in recognising the power of a particular story, but in charting, with beautiful precision, its strange echoes and reverberations' - Craig Brown

'Simply superb' - Alexandra Harris

'Extraordinary' - Phillipa Gregory

'As good as non-fiction could possibly get' - Victoria Hislop

'Mesmerising' - Boyd Tonkin

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