Revenge is Sweet: Stories of Retribution and Revenge

"Before you embark on a journey of Revenge, Dig two graves." Confucius

A scientific study revealed that men get greater satisfaction from revenge than women. But what drives people to seek retribution and how far will they go to settle a score? Revenge is Sweet is a light-hearted look at the darker side of human nature. Focusing on the outrageous lengths people, and indeed nature, will go to in order to get even, it traces the history of revenge and its evolution from ancient times to the present day.

Exploring the psychology behind revenge, Claire Gillman also examines motivation, possible repercussions and whether or not revenge can work and for whom. She covers:

• Masculine/Feminine revenge: the differences in how men and women settle scores
• Workplace revenge: how disgruntled employees get even
• Political revenge: payback in the corridors of power
• Motoring revenge: retribution by road rage.

Then of course, there's financial revenge. One of the best ways of getting even is through one's last will and testament: who inherits the family fortune and who gets the family cat - and what if the cat inherits the family fortune? From literary, royal and sporting vendettas, to vengeful acts of the rich and famous, Revenge is Sweet recounts stories from around the world that show revenge in all its guises. Strange tales include:

• The widow who had her husband's ashes put in an egg-timer - she reasoned he'd been so lazy during his life, she'd put him to work after his death.
• The mouse in New Mexico which had its revenge against a homeowner who tried to kill it in a pile of burning leaves - the mouse ran back into the man's house and set fire to it.
• One chef confessed that after a customer had very rudely asked for his burger 'without any bl**dy sauce on it,' she licked the sauce off the burger with her tongue and then sent it out to be served
• After a long-running neighbour dispute, one of the parties went on holiday for two weeks in the summer. The other neighbour took advantage of their absence to put two pints of maggots through their letterbox. The family returned to a Hitchcock-like house of flies!
• And, the man who coated the top of his frequently 'borrowed' ice cream with a thick layer of salt, driving one of his housemates to out herself as the culprit.

Funny and irreverent, Revenge is Sweet is an illuminating insight into the concept of payback, revealing why most of us have secretly longed for retribution but haven't had the courage to try it yet!