At Histories of the Unexpected, we believe that everything has a history – even the most unexpected of subjects – and that everything links together in unexpected ways.

We believe that the history of the itch, the history of crawling, the history of clouds, or of lightning or of zombies or zebras or holes or perfume or rubbish or mustard – all have fascinating histories of their own.

In this book we take this approach into the Tudor world. You will find out here how the history of shrinking is all to do with the Spanish Armada; how the history of orangesis all to do with Tudor spies; how the history of monsters is all to do with those famous Tudor queens Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Histories of the Unexpected not only presents a new way of thinking about the past, but also reveals the everyday world around us as never before.