Books by Mike Jay

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity

Stranger Than Fiction brings together, for the first time, Mike Jay's distinctive and immensely readable forays into the twilight zones of history, culture and the human mind. Beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated, Stranger Than Fiction is a unique compendium of forgotten histories, untold stories and unexplored worlds.

The remarkable life of Colonel Edward Despard, comrade-in-arms of Nelson and a man who championed the rights of freed slaves, but who was executed in Britain for high treason in 1803.

Explores the meaning of mental illness through the successive incarnations of the institution that defined it: the madhouse, designed to segregate its inmates from society; the lunatic asylum, which intended to restore the reason of sufferers by humane treatment; and the mental hospital, which reduced their conditions to diseases of the brain.

Besides representing England, he also won other honours for Rovers winning the Third Division (South) Championship in 1952/53 and also played in many representative matches for the English Football Association including a six-week tour to the West Indies in 1955.

In the 1989/90 season, Bristol Rovers clinched promotion to the old `Second Division', thanks largely to the tremendous team spirit of a side exiled in Bath, away from its traditional Bristol home.

Bristol Rovers FC 1973-74 season