As a retired court lawyer, it has never ceased to amaze me how badly advised Oscar Wilde was when he brought a private prosecution against the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The alleged libel took the form of a calling card left with the doorman at Wilde’s club in which Wilde was described as... Continue Reading →

Late Victorian London was not the best of places in which to be poor, if anywhere was. And its ‘East End’ was even less inviting, with unemployment, crime, disease and starvation the most obvious indicators that the very capital of Victoria’s proud Empire had become a running sore. When over one in ten of the... Continue Reading →

If you’re going to push your sister off a moving train, don’t do it somewhere where the Enright investigation team might be looking. When the body of a young woman is discovered inside a railway tunnel in a remote location in Wiltshire, the local police are baffled. Who was she, and where did she come... Continue Reading →

There was a huge irony in the fact that in late Victorian society, after half a century in which Queen Victoria had ruled supreme – and, for many years, alone – as the exalted head of the world’s largest empire, the lot of her lesser sisters down the social ladder was little better than it... Continue Reading →

A shadowy presence is haunting London. Can anyone shine a light on the darkness? London, 1891 The city is still reeling from the brutal Ripper killings and now women are once more being sexually harassed. Someone is breaking into their homes, stealing their undergarments and leaving threatening messages behind. With no valuables stolen and no... Continue Reading →