Thanks to @WeirdBristol, a Twitter account run by author Charlie Revelle-Smith, a truly shriek-making and/or gag-inducing piece of printing history has come to our attention. And yes, it’s weird and yes it’s in Bristol (Bristol being very on-trend at the moment, see Briefing).

We need to organise a trip down the M4 to the M Shed museum to find out more about this 1821 book bound in the skin of murderer John Horwood. Thankfully, as Charlie points out, books bound in human skin are fantastically rare.

Overmatter also can’t help wondering what sort of conversation ensued at the time between the print buyer and the bookbinder about the specifications for this particularly grotesque piece of work.

According to an old BBC report about the strange world of anthropodermic bibliopegy (which was quite a thing in the 19th century, apparently) following his trial and execution, “Horwood’s corpse was dissected by surgeon Richard Smith during a public lecture at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Smith then decided to have part of Horwood’s skin tanned to bind a collection of papers about the case. The cover of the book was embossed with a skull and crossbones, with the words ‘Cutis Vera Johannis Horwood’, meaning ‘the actual skin of John Horwood’, added in gilt letters.”

Ick, ick and thrice ick.