Books by Chris Mikul

Bizarrism II collects further tales of high strangeness around the world. The cast includes an eccentric baroness, a murderous comic book artist, an obsessed ichthyologist, a celebrity stigmatic, a cannibalistic writer, a senile surgeon and a woman who tried to make atheism into a religion. Along the way, a light is shone on various religious cults, mysterious deaths are pondered, conspiracy theories probed and the fate of Napoleon's penis tracked. It's a lively, meticulously researched collection of tales that will amuse, appal and intrigue, and leave you marvelling at the infinite strangeness of human beings.

Bizarrism is a collection of strange-but-true tales, featuring a grand parade of eccentrics, visionaries, crackpots, cult leaders, artists, theorists and outsiders of every stripe. First published in 1999, this new, fully revised and expanded edition revisits a host of unique individuals, including: - William Chidley, who believed that, when it comes to sex, we've all been making a terrible mistake - Arthur Cravan, who combined poetry with boxing - Slim Gaillard, jazz singer and dispenser of 'vout' - William Lindsay Gresham, author of the classic noir novel Nightmare Alley - Rosaleen Norton, Australia's most notorious witch - Harry Crosby, poet, sun worshipper and the best looking corpse of 1929 - Reginal Levgiac, author of the mysterious pamphlet Drugs Virus Germs.