Wolves and Werewolves is the first comprehensive account of the history and the folk-lore of wolves which also shows the position of the wolf in the world today (1964).

One always imagines that disasters caused by wolves are things of the far distant past, so it is surprising to learn that in 1950 a soldier and a wolf fought to the death in the mountains of Italy, and that four years later, near Perugia, a woodman was attacked and seriously injured. A postman was killed and devoured by wolves in the Abruzzi in 1956 and in February 1963, a wolf was seen in Rome itself. In France, wolves were common inhabitants until the First World War. The terrible beast of the Gévaudan had sixty victims to its name, but even these poor people did not die so agonisingly as the hundreds of wretches who suffered from hydrophobia as a result of being bitten by mad wolves.

Wolves undoubtedly prowl in most of the forests of Europe, not only in Russia, Poland and the north. They have long been extinct in England and Wales, but records show that they survived in Scotland until 1743, and in Ireland they probably lingered into the early years of the nineteenth century. A great many exciting, if somewhat gruesome, stories of struggles with wolves have been handed down to us.

The story of Little Red Riding Hood was fundamentally true, and John Pollard tells this and many other tales against a background of well-researched fact. There are accounts of ancient rites connected, often unconsciously, with wolves; of uncanny happenings to do with werewolves; and of brave men who pitched their strength against these grey enemies of their families and friends.

This is a thrilling book because it is true.