Secret Edinburgh

Not all of Edinburgh's history is well-known - some of it has remained a secret, lost behind the facades of the familiar and hidden from view ... until now. Fascinated by Edinburgh's hidden history, author Jack Gillon has plundered the records in a quest for the lesser-known side of Scotland's capital city, which is sometimes scatty and flamboyant. Secret Edinburgh tells the tales of the man who believed that children were born with tails, the blacksmith who lived in a fully-fitted cavehouse, an exhibition of Irish Giants, the Six-Foot-High Club, the first balloon ascent, a Patent Rotary Boat, bizarre performers, the ill-starred Kinetic Sculpture - and much more to intrigue and amuse Edinburgh's friends old and new.