A Very British Murder

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Prior to that she states that everyone was far more concerned with the everyday battles to feed and clothe themselves, however with the rise in literacy levels amongst the population, murder became a source of entertainment.

A couple of times the author describes finding places in London today connected to murders that happened a long time ago - I really enjoyed this link and would have been happy to see more of this. Worsley charts the evolution of the crime novel through penny bloods, penny dreadfuls, yellowbacks, sensation novels and pulps. As a look at the changing nature of the types of books the nation read as well as illustrating some of the true-life crimes of the period this is an excellent read. I was quite engaged by the beginning, as it details the shocking murders that were reported with such scandalous relish they garnered a wide interest and in a changing worl of industrial revolution and urbanization changed the public perception of such incidents. Murder as a tourist attraction, if that is the right term, was born, and it was to live on in a less ghoulish manner with Madame Tussaud’s ever-popular museum of waxworks and effigies of murderers and their prey.It sounds gruesome, but before we condemn our ancestors for their blood lust, we should look to our own pastimes. The first half of the book was much more detailed than the second which felt rather rushed, nevertheless I enjoyed Worsley's potted history being a fan of crime fiction and found that there were many ideas new to me. From Jack the Ripper to the cosy crimes of the Golden Age, renowned historian Lucy Worsley explores the evolution of the typical British murder, to accompany a new BBC series.

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. 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. It’s not deep lit crit, or a totally in depth micro-history, but there’s interesting stuff and it’s entertainingly written. One of the early detectives featured is Mr Whicher the man who inspired the fantastic read The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale which I read before I started reviewing but still sits on my bookshelf!

The Golden Age, it might be said, began with the Sherlock Holmes stories and continued with the ever-popular novels of Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Dorothy L.