Yet again prize-winning author Johnne Johnson digs deep into a county's grim past, presenting the reader with two hundred years of criminality and vice, of wretched living conditions and blind fate which so often leads to appalling consequences. The book offers simply what its title suggests. It is an almanac and it is certainly grim.

So what should the reader expect? Well, here is a foretaste.

1 February 1915
... Bessie was found drowned in a small zinc bath in front of the fire. The doctor had no doubt that she had had an epileptic fit. The widower arranged the funeral, asking for it to be 'moderately carried out' at the cost of seven guineas. The zinc bath, for which he had paid 37s6d on approval, he returned to the hardware store ...

5 April 1859
... A frightful accident occurred in Chatham dockyard to one of the workmen, John Gallavan, who was literally torn to pieces. The unfortunate man was employed in attending to some portion of the ponderous machinery when his clothes came in contact with a portion of the machinery and he was immediately drawn in ...

9 June 1865
... All too late did a flagman up the line try to warn the train driver; all too late for any action before the train keeled over the the bridge, seven of its carriages plunging into the stream, a fall of several feet. They were so crushed and shattered that together they did not occupy the space of two whole carriages ...

7 August 1761
... Convicts at Maidstone Gaol had their shackles removed prior to entering the chapel. But on this occasion, once the irons were taken off, the turnkey's sword was seized and he was stabbed and mortally wounded ... 

3 September 1878
... The boat sank within four minutes: only a few were rescued and it is suggested that about 640 people died ...

1 November 1796
... RUN AWAY - With his Master's property, in the last year of his apprenticeship, WILLIAM FEATHERSTONE, a native of Rodmersham, apprentice to Stephen Rouse, Carpenter and Wheelwright, of Minster ...

7 December 1915
... Two men were killed and two others injured at Snowdown Colliery ...

A Grim Almanac indeed!