Did you know that Hitler was addicted to cocaine? That Stalin robbed a bank? That some people stole Charlie Chaplin's corpse and demanded ransom? Giles Milton unfolds, with his charismatic pen, one hundred paradoxical historical snapshots, one hundred incredible stories that read like a novel but are one hundred percent real.

We will learn about Hiroo Onoda, the solitary Japanese soldier who fought valiantly in World War II until... 1974; about Agatha Christie, who mysteriously vanished for eleven whole days in 1926; and about Werner Franz, a steward on the airship "Hindenburg," who lived to tell his harrowing experience when the "Hindenburg" went up in flames in 1937.

With a cast of spies, criminals, cannibals, adventurers, and slaves parading before our eyes, the valid and documented anecdotes of Giles Milton take us on a journey across six continents and twenty centuries, illuminating some of the darkest stories and some of the most curious and unforgettable heroes of History – both human and animal.