
Will Power
The Most Baffling Bequests, Ludicrous Last Wishes, and Daft Declarations in Final Testaments
Susan Goldenberg(Author)
Dundurn Press
Published on 16. April 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-4597-5582-6 (ISBN)
Description
The most astonishing and extraordinary bequests and last requests found in people's wills.
"This will is uncommon and capricious." As beginnings go, this opening line shows how our final words don't need to be written in standard legalese but can instead be creative and individualistic. Will Power tells the stories of big names and ordinary people writing their last wills and testaments who did just that.
There's the eccentric will that left a mansion and its grounds to a parrot. Developers could do nothing until it died -- and parrots have long lives. There are cautionary tales of family conflict, including the one-page will fought over for two decades by three generations. Want to write a parting shot? Read about the will that mocked the beneficiaries, such as the bequest that said, "For my sister because she is married to a minister who (God help him) she hen pecks." Or the contested will that ordered the deceased's horses to be killed by a police firing squad; the bigoted will that bequeathed everything to a neo-Nazi organization; and the will that left far more money to sons than daughters, sparking a landmark gender discrimination case.
These stories and many more will amuse, entertain, and inform -- for your consideration when you write or revise your will.
"This will is uncommon and capricious." As beginnings go, this opening line shows how our final words don't need to be written in standard legalese but can instead be creative and individualistic. Will Power tells the stories of big names and ordinary people writing their last wills and testaments who did just that.
There's the eccentric will that left a mansion and its grounds to a parrot. Developers could do nothing until it died -- and parrots have long lives. There are cautionary tales of family conflict, including the one-page will fought over for two decades by three generations. Want to write a parting shot? Read about the will that mocked the beneficiaries, such as the bequest that said, "For my sister because she is married to a minister who (God help him) she hen pecks." Or the contested will that ordered the deceased's horses to be killed by a police firing squad; the bigoted will that bequeathed everything to a neo-Nazi organization; and the will that left far more money to sons than daughters, sparking a landmark gender discrimination case.
These stories and many more will amuse, entertain, and inform -- for your consideration when you write or revise your will.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Publishing group
The Dundurn Group
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
322 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4597-5582-6 (9781459755826)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Susan Goldenberg
Will Power
The Most Baffling Bequests, Ludicrous Last Wishes, and Daft Declarations in Final Testaments
E-Book
02/2026
Dundurn Press
€13.49
Available for download
Person
Susan Goldenberg is the author of ten books and has won both a Canadian Author's Award and a Canadian Business Press Editors' Award. She has written for Canadian and American newspapers and currently pens articles for Canada's History magazine. She lives in Toronto.