Bondeson attended medical school at
Lund University, Sweden, and qualified in 1988. He became a specialist in
rheumatology and internal medicine, and defended his PhD thesis in 1996. He was awarded several scholarships to continue his scientific career at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London. He became a pioneer of the experimental use of adenoviral gene transfer to study intracellular signalling, and investigate the regulation of important cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases. In 2000, he was promoted to become senior lecturer and consultant rheumatologist at Cardiff University, doing a mixture of clinical work, teaching and research. Here, his research has concentrated on the role of synovial macrophages in
osteoarthritis, and regulation of
degradative enzymes in this disease. Bondeson has more than a hundred publications in refereed scientific journals, and continuing research grant support from
Arthritis Research UK.
Writing Bondeson has also written a series of books in the areas of the history of medicine and zoology, and some studies about curious historical episodes. His
Cabinet of Medical Curiosities was published in 1997.
Buried Alive, a historical study of the signs of death and the risk of being prematurely buried by mistake, was supported by a scholarship from the
Wellcome Trust.
The London Monster tells of a series of stabbings of London women between 1788 and 1790.
The Great Pretenders (2003) is a study of historical cases of disputed identity, such as the
Lost Dauphin of France,
Kaspar Hauser and the
Tichborne Claimant. ''Queen Victoria's Stalker'' (2010) concerns Edward
"the Boy" Jones, a weird teenager who became obsessed with the youthful
Queen Victoria and broke into
Buckingham Palace to stalk her. After stealing the Queen's underclothes and spying on her in her dressing room, he was captured by government agents and forced to serve in the Royal Navy for more than five years without charge or trial. In 2011, Bondeson published
Amazing Dogs, a cabinet of canine curiosities exemplifying the cultural history of dogs. The most newsworthy chapter deals with German fascination with allegedly super-intelligent dogs: the so-called 'New Animal Psychology' movement believed that if they were trained to communicate using a sign language, they could become the intellectual equals of their owners. Remarkably, these beliefs were shared by some of the Nazis, who made experiments to create superdogs loyal to the Nazi
Herrenvolk. The same year, Bondeson published
Greyfriars Bobby, the Most Faithful Dog in the World, a thorough biography of
Greyfriars Bobby, a Scottish
Skye Terrier who supposedly kept vigil over his master's grave for 14 years. Original sources and newly discovered illustrations are employed to reinterpret the story of Greyfriars Bobby and describe the pan-European myth of the "Dog on the Master's Grave" and the many other graveyard or cemetery dogs at large in
Victorian times. In 2012, he published
Those Amazing Newfoundland Dogs, a full-length cultural history of the
Newfoundland breed, with a profusion of old illustrations. In 2013 came
The True History of Jack the Ripper, about a 1905 novel about Jack the Ripper written by Guy Logan. The following year, his
Murder Houses of London described Central London's archaeology of capital crime, in the shape of houses where notable murders had been committed. In 2015 came two more books on London's murder houses, covering South London and all the suburbs. In February 2016, his
Rivals of the Ripper was a full-length study of unsolved murders of women in London during the late Victorian era. The most notable chapter deals with a string of unsolved murders of young girls in the West Ham area in the 1880s and 1890s, raising the possibility that a serial killer had been at work. In August 2016, he published
Strange Victoriana, a collection of medical freaks, ghosts, strange animals, mysteries and Forteana from Victorian times, with illustrations from the old periodical
Illustrated Police News. In January 2017 he produced
The Ripper of Waterloo Road, about the murder of Eliza Grimwood in 1838, suggesting that she was one of four victims of a previously unrecognized early Victorian serial killer. In December 2017 came
Victorian Murders, a collection of murder stories with illustrations from the
Illustrated Police News, including the Llangibby Massacre of 1878 and the unsolved murder of Ann Reville in Slough in 1881. One notable chapter in the book concerns the 'Maidenhead Mystery' of 1893 and the Dutch serial killer Hendrik de Jong, thought by some at the time to have been Jack the Ripper. In March 2018 he published
The Lion Boy and Other Medical Curiosities, his third book of strange and unexpected events in the history of medicine. One chapter concerns Johnny Trunley, an example of extreme obesity in Edwardian times, known as the Fat Boy of Peckham. In July 2018, ''Phillimore's Edinburgh
featured the old postcard artist Reginald Phillimore and his many felicitous paintings of various Edinburgh landmarks in Edwardian times, with a second volume, the 2020 Phillimore's East Lothian
, dealing with some of his most superior cards from his own county. In 2020, he also published Murder Houses of Edinburgh'', about the 'black plaque' houses of the Scottish capital. In 2021, he published
Doctor Poison, the first biography of the murderous American doctor George Henry Lamson based on modern research. For many years, Bondeson has been a regular contributor to the
Fortean Times, and he also writes for
Edinburgh Life,
East Lothian Life,
Listed Heritage,
Journal of the Whitechapel Society and
Haunted Magazine, and used to contribute to
BBC History and
Picture Postcard Monthly magazines, as well as to the now defunct crime magazines
True Detective,
Dagger and
Ripperologist. He also contributes to the
Edinburgh Evening News and
East Lothian Courier newspapers, among others. ==Selected works==