Author unearths tales of rivalry and plotting going back 4,000 years

John worked in TV and radio for 30 years and started writing books in 2001. He specialises in the history of disasters.

He had always been fascinated by assassinations – “I remember where I was when JFK was assassinated” – and when Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, was killed by a nerve gas in 2017, John had a lightbulb moment.

“I realised people were intrigued by assassinations, especially the more bizarre ones in history,” he says.

“Kim Jo n g - n a m had deadly nerve gas smeared on his face at Ku a l a Lumpur Airport by two women who believed they were doing a prank for a TV reality s h o w. Yo u couldn’t make it up.”

T h a t ’s when John decided to write a book identifying assassinations, going right back 4,300 years ago to ancient Egypt up to the present day.

“Assassins have been murdering the powerful and famous for at least 4,000 years. At first, the most common reason was personal ambition, and the perpetrators were often close f a m i l y, like the Turkish sultan who had 19 of his brothers strangled.

“More recent motives include religion and political ideology.

“For centuries, methods changed little – stabbing, poison, strangling.

“All required getting right up to the target, and even when firearms appeared, assassins usually preferred the handgun at close quarters to the sniper’s rifle.

“And many victims were surprisingly careless: Abraham Lincoln had let his bodyguard go for a drink. He was, quite literally, caught off guard and killed.”

Assassins’ Deeds: A History Of Assassination From Ancient Egypt To The Present D a y, by John Withington, is published today by Reaktion Books.

John Withington contrasts distant and recent incidents.