Nietzsche. Engels. Freud. Trotsky. Four gigantic figures famous for their facial hair and authorship of strange, difficult books. In this remarkable collection of paired stories Mac Daly and Ellis Sharp reveal the hitherto unknown sides to the lives of these heterodox hirsute humans. Here for the first time is the full story of Trotsky's career in the movies, as well as his little-known exile in a town with only one set of traffic lights. Sleep, philosophy, politics, Engels's interest in video and Freud's behaviour at the Villa Wassing are probed in dramatic detail. The volume, which includes a unique interview with Nietzsche's legendary moustache, is essential reading for anyone interested in Dorset, eighteenth century Spanish quodlibetarianism, a train named Sylvia, or Prince Hamlet's behaviour and play at the age of four.