A FIERY AND FURIOUS PEOPLE

(Arrow £14.99) THE British Army is admired all over the world, while our football hooligans are notorious for different reasons. What unites them is a willingness to deploy violence against specific targets. But is a propensity to force a peculiarly English trait?

In this fascinating history of violence from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, James Sharpe draws on court records, verbatim accounts and bloodcurdling contemporary records to chronicle the changing aspects of brutality through the ages.

He considers mob savagery, viciousness in sport (football was originally a mass brawl with a ball at its centre), domestic illtreatment, literary ferocity and the savage punishments inflicted by the law.

His heartening conclusion is that, on the whole, we are becoming a less violent and more civilised nation.