The city of London breathed in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that parched the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a stench. The stench was all-consuming, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and infuse

The year eight hundred forty-five AD. A chill wind blasted across the Seine River, carrying with it the scent of salt and fear. The Norsemen were amongst us, a stormy swarm of warriors seeking riches. Their longships, like prowling predators, sliced through the waters, their banners fluttering in the wind. A city once proud now trembled beneath the