A Dickensland Extract: The Haunted Bridge
From vanishing coaching inns and submerged riverside stairs to hidden burial grounds and apocryphal shops… In his new book Dickensland, Lee Jackson traces the…
Victorian London
Dirty Old London by Lee Jackson – 50 Years in 50 Books
Dirty Old London was published in 2014. Lee Jackson’s book tells us how Victorian reformers struggled to stem a rising tide of pollution and…
Palaces of Pleasure- Q&A with Lee Jackson
The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the nineteenth century’s growing industrialised class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their…
‘Working Mothers’ – An extract from Bread Winner by Emma Griffin
Escape Into Art, Look Through the Lens of History, Seek Certainty in Science … To help us all keep on reading over the coming…
Jack the Ripper vs. Women Against Violence Against Women, by John Bennett
In Mob Town: A History of Crime and Disorder in the East End, John Bennett delves into four centuries of East End history to…
Parliamentary Bills of 1858’s One Hot Summer, by Rosemary Ashton
A unique, in-depth view of London during the record-breaking hot weather of 1858, Rosemary Ashton’s One Hot Summer uncovers crucial moments in the lives of Victorian Londoners…
The Secret Poisoner: Interview with Linda Stratmann
The Secret Poisoner: A Century of Murder by Linda Stratmann – a BBC Radio 2 Book Club choice – is a dark and splendid social…
The Secret Poisoner: An Extract
The Secret Poisoner: A Century of Murder by Linda Stratmann – a BBC Radio 2 Book Club choice – is a dark and splendid social…
The Secret Poisoner: An Introduction
Linda Stratmann‘s latest book – and BBC Radio 2 Book Club’s recent choice – The Secret Poisoner: A Century of Murder is a dark and splendid…
Yale Books Autumn Reading List
‘I don’t think there’s a trade publishing house producing high-calibre, serious non-fiction of the quality and variety of Yale.’ – Sam Leith It’s officially autumn,…
The People’s Galleries: South Kensington Museum – The V&A
Giles Waterfield’s The People’s Galleries is a wide-ranging examination of the phenomenon of the art museum in Britain, from its early days in 1800 when the British…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 30
‘The fact that sewers and cesspools brought miasma into the home was an important factor, creating powerful anxieties. Fear of miasma – fear, in particular, of…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 29
‘Many myths and ‘factoids’ appear on the web and in print. They are often incorrect…’ Throughout this month, Lee Jackson reveals the background to Dirty…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 27
‘The capital was increasingly blighted by darker, longer visitations of gloom; and doctors were able to collect more and more data on the public…
Dirty Old London: 30 Days of Filth: Day 26
‘The Lady’s Newspaper, keen to plug a new shopping street, waxed lyrical: ‘the most loathsome of the haunts of vice and infamy … St. Giles converted…