Vlad the Impaler : in search of the real Dracula

For many, Vlad the Impaler is the bloodsucking torturer recreated in Hollywood's Interview with the Vampire and the real character so vitally realised in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the man recreated on screen by screen legends Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee or Gary Oldman, or the vampire stalking through the pages of Ann Rice's novels.

Later interpretations see him as a potent symbol of Nazi aggression in WWII, fired partly by Murnau's Nosferatu of the 1920s and the blood rites of the Aryans. But who was the real man who inspired the Dracula legend?

Was he as gruesome as legend depicts, or, as some Romanians, refuting the popular image, suggest, an heroic 15th century warrior and freedom fighter? Or is his reputation as a bloodthirsty mass-murderer, who sadistically impaled his victims, justified?In this new book, by acclaimed true crime historian Mei Trow, the author peels back the layers of myth and history to unravel to reveal the 15th century figure who was the real Vlad the Impaler.