Today, many city-dwellers regard rats as an unavoidable nuisance, but in nineteenth-century England, they were a far more dangerous and pervasive problem. This fascinating volume, penned by one of the UK's foremost rat exterminators, is a cross between a how-to manual and an autobiography. Those with an interest in the dark underbelly of Victorian life will relish this quirky page-turner.

Ike Matthews was a well known pest controller in his home town of Manchester over 100 years ago. His services were much in demand by local corporations, railway companies and merchants. This book details his extermination methods acquired over some twenty five years as a full time rat catcher. During this period he not only studied the different and the best methods of catching rats, but also took great interest in their ways and habits