Whatever lay out there in the darkness - wolves, bears and robbers - assumed an awesome significance.

It was not long before such hidden dangers, actual and real, became demonised in the imagination.

This became a process that would persist into the modern age. For although the villains might come and go on this revolving stage, only the names changed.

Instead of sprite and werewolf, witch and wizard, substitute race, creed, nuclear weaponry and global terrorism.

Man's insecurity and murderous inclinations would conspire with each new science to produce different horrors...

This is a well-argued book that traces the origins of terror from the concept of the Devil, through the theological nightmares of the Middle Ages and into the pre-dawn of the present day with the ages of restoration and revolution.

Much of this does not make for relaxed reading, but the author exhibits remarkable restraint and taste during the passages on the persecutions of the Cathars and witches.

He demonstrates with great clarity how religions required - and still do - absolute control in order to prevail.

And it was no coincidence that women were so often the victims of the despotic, sadistic or just plain power-crazed.

The horrors of persecution reached particularly disgusting heights in Europe, where entire local economies were based around the detection and prosecution of witches.

However, there is no justification in feeling too smug about our own times.

As we know to our own cost, across the world, a new Middle Ages is being ushered in by zealots who draw their inspiration from other eras.

For September 11 is all the proof one needs in order to realise that Mankind has not ascended from the savage in any way, whatsoever.

John Phillpott