An Esoteric History of Red Hair: Summary

[What follows is the first draft of my book An Esoteric History of Red Hair. I've uploaded the 
chapters in reverse order so that they appear in their correct sequence.

UPDATE: A finished version of this book is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and Paperback edition.]

A few last thoughts to end the book with. I think in that last chapter I drifted off-piste a little bit. I think anyone reading the last few chapters in particular will have noticed my boredom setting in and my inability to keep up the more deliberate tone I'd tried so hard to maintain throughout the rest of the book. My natural desire to write lazy copy about aliens and Illuminati bloodlines just couldn't be stifled in the end. In fact, I found it really hard to write without using emoticons from literally the first chapter. How people write longer, more scholarly books I'll never know.

Saying that though I hope that for anyone reading this there was at least something in here to make the book worth reading. I've tried to simply write about the things that have interested me about red hair, in the hope that others interested in red hair will also find some use or entertainment in them. Although the book contains some wild speculation, I've tried to write honestly, and although my obvious bias towards red hair (and towards sensationalism as well) may have dampened any possibility of this book being truly scholarly in any real sense I think it is still at least true to its intentions.

Incidentally, I've chose not to include references and an index in this book for a few reasons. The first reason is my boredom threshold. It's such a short little book I really can't be arsed with the effort of going to such lengths to make it any longer. The second reason is that most of the information in the book can be found on my blog, and on my website, in much more detail, with links and references where I've felt it worthwhile to include them. Again, the sites won't be the most scholarly sites you've ever visited, but at least there's no illusion of false authority, and I do at least try to be helpful in citing my sources.

http://redhairmyths.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.themythsandhistoryofredhair.co.uk/

Finally I'd like to thank all the people that have helped me to bring this book to fruition. Obviously my friends and family, but also all the unknown and unacknowledged people that have produced the books and on-line resources from which I've gleaned all the information I've used. It's hard to thank every bee that makes up the Internet hive-mind, so I wouldn't know where to start in listing people, but each and every one is truly appreciated. And finally finally a special thanks is deserved to my red-haired Italian friend Emanuela, who has provided so much of the information that has went into this book (although I'm sure she won't approve of the speculative, unscholarly tone when she reads it). Without her this book would've been half as long, and about a third as interesting.

Thanks for reading.