From monster to tragic hero, the werewolf is a complex beast. A slave to his inner rage, the out-of-control wolf-man has careered through mythology and movie screens for centuries, howling in pursuit of his prey. But the modern werewolf is as likely to shed a lonely tear as another's blood.

Suffering human remorse for a beast's inhumane acts, the man-turned-wolf is haunted by his own guilt and fear of harming those he loves. For millennia, the werewolf has stalked our imaginations and preyed on our souls. Now, Jon Izzard goes beyond the fiction to find the facts behind this most tortured of creatures.

With real-life stories of 'clinical lycanthropy' and feral children brought up in the ways of wolves, revealing a remarkably humane side to the natural wolf, he uncovers links between man and beast much stronger than we might think. Packed with historical accounts and myths from around the world, from magical shapeshifters and skinwalkers, to those doomed by dark and mysterious curses, discover