From witnessing the last public guillotine execution in France to recording heavy metal at 91, Christopher Lee’s life was stranger and richer than his most famous roles.

Exploding cigars, poisoned wetsuits, Mafia hitmen and secret memos. Declassified records reveal how the CIA repeatedly tried and failed to kill Fidel Castro, exposing a strange Cold War world where obsession often replaced strategy.

Born into empire and raised in a palace, Sophia Duleep Singh chose protest over privilege. From Black Friday to selling suffragette papers outside Hampton Court, her life reshaped what rebellion could look like.