Have you ever lost your voice because you were called to speak in front of an audience? You might be suffering from glossophobia. Do you feel trapped in indecision and uncertainty? Does it comfort you to know that this has a name? Aboulomania.

Could your habit of constantly buying books while having piles of unread ones at home border on bibliomania? Do you exhibit arachnophobic terror at the sight of the particular insect? Could intense anxiety about being separated from your mobile phone be a sign of nomophobia (no mobile phone phobia)?

Our phobias and manias, contradictory and multifaceted, are clearly part of our innermost self, yet they are also connected with the currents of the era in which we live. Kate Summerscale compiles a panorama of the obsessions that shape our existence, through 99 phobias and manias, some extremely common and others extremely rare.

On a fascinating journey from prehistory to the Middle Ages and up to today, using a range of evidence and references, the award-winning author traces the links between private and public space, the personal and the political sphere.