A Very British Murder

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Yet there were soon rather more respectable ways to satiate one’s appetite for crime, loosely speaking – the ‘sensation novel’ and the melodrama. Closed captions (CC) refer to subtitles in the available language with the addition of relevant non-dialogue information. It appeared to be short chapters on famous Victorian murders but suddenly morphed into what the Victorian reader trends were regarding murders and the reporting thereof. There is also nothing about another significant sub-genre, the "cosy" mysteries that deliberately hark back to the Golden Age. But how much did real murders, such as the sensational killings conducted by Dr Crippen, influence entertainment?

The Art of the English Murder is a unique exploration of the art of crime and a riveting investigation into the English criminal soul by one of our finest historians. I previously recommended Savage Appetites, but while that was a great book, it was very narrowly focused on female fans of true crime, while A Very British Murder take a more general look at the development of our fascination with murder. If you are interested in Crime, both as fiction and as reality, especially in how it affects the public psyche, then you will certainly find a lot to appreciate here. In 2002 I made a brief excursion to Glasgow Museums before coming down to London as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces in 2003. Whether you're looking for some textbooks for university, the latest biography or a travel guide - you'll find what you need in our categories.

The next chapter continues the story by looking at the puppets that were used to stage a reenactment of the murder, which launches us into the history of these shows. In this book, which accompanies her TV series, historian Lucy Worsley explores the nation’s interest in both true crime, and its fictional representations, between 1800 and 1946. From a Regency serial killer to Agatha Christie, this is the story of how crime was turned into art. We were becoming a much more humane society by then, and in fact had been thus since 1823, when the Judgement of Death Act reduced the number of capital crimes to those guilty of treason, murder or piracy. This book was first published in 2013 and it would be interesting to see what the author thinks of the recent explosion in availability of true crime podcasts and "tik tok detectives".

Crime and murder were discovered to provide public entertainment that "would thrill, horrify, and delight" leading to the popularity of the mystery novel. Ever since the Ratcliff Highway Murders caused a nation-wide panic in Regency England, the British have taken an almost ghoulish pleasure in 'a good murder'. The subject matter itself is not groundbreaking or perspective-changing but interesting nevertheless if you have a fondness for detective fiction as I do. It starts with De Quincey’s essay on opium, shifts to his essay on murder and then we meet the first case that sparked intense interest: the 1811 Ratcliffe Highway Murders.There is an undercurrent of "woke" ideas, particularly in the later sections, and the misused quotes are often made to prove a point about the failings of the authors when facing this "woke" agenda. In addition there was a lot of information that may well have been correct but no indication of where it came from was available. In addition, she talks about the founding of the organized police force, detective work, ‘Penny Bloods’ (the precursor to crime fiction), poisonings, and forensic science.