Great and Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem in Early Modern Britain

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And because each story is in its own self-contained chapter I was able to read one a day, and then move on to something lighter for the rest of my daily reading! I thought she did a really excellent job of using the crimes as a way to discuss various aspects of the society at that time. In terms of our thirst for knowledge for all things grisly, it seems like we haven't changed much in 500 years.

The sad thing is that I suspect it still goes on even in our “civilised” countries, but these days it’s probably immigrant women who get the worst of it. I would read another book by them in the hopes that the writing style had changed slightly as it’s always exciting to come across a book with new information, and it was a really quick read too. By signing up to my newsletter, you'll be the first to know about my latest book releases, events, and exclusive content that I only share with my subscribers. Throughout history crime has been both private and public, in this book Adams reflects that our current obsession with true crime is actually centuries old.

explores the strange history of death and murder in early modern England, yet the stories within may appear shockingly familiar. There are definitely bits that are gruesome and bits that made me angry, but the way she puts it all into the context of the time is really well done. The most prominent theme is that of suicide (or 'felo de se') - the early moderns had different ideas about suicide which carried its own sentence and had very negative social consequences for the remaining family (e.

I thought she got the balance just right between the personal stories and the social and historical context. This in itself would have been fine as rewriting for a modern audience can make the cases more approachable due to changes in language, but it feels that the author was torn between this and trying to insert a vague analytical moral note, which led to a muddied and less impactful storytelling style. Yes, she managed to make me feel outraged a couple of times over the sheer unfairness of the justice system to women, and to poor people in general!She explains the need for him to be “converted” to satisfy the prevailing religious agenda, and how this was achieved.

The author has done well to elicit such strong emotions from you considering the starting point for each of the cases was probably quite sensational. My favourites were probably the ones where we have records to show the families of the deceased making every effort to prove their child's innocence or bring their murderer to justice.She takes us beyond Nathaniel's conviction to his time in Newgate, describing the appalling conditions in which prisoners were kept.

I imagine that a career transition from police officer to history academic is fairly rare, but in this case it made for a very interesting perspective. I knocked my rating down from 5 stars because quite a few of the examples were about suicide, and it'd have been nice to have a bit more variety. The murder is gruesomely told as it was in the pamphlets of the time, and the investigation seems efficient and surprisingly similar to modern investigations, relying on physical clues, witnesses, background checks on suspects, etc. That does sound very similar in style, though covering a later period – I may have to fit that one in sometime!If the women should miscarry or their baby not survive for long, they then ran the risk of being prosecuted for murder, even if there was little evidence.