In 1888 Jack the Ripper made the headlines with a series of horrific murders that remain unsolved to this day. But most killers are not shadowy figures stalking the streets with a lust for blood. Many are ordinary citizens driven to the ultimate crime by circumstance, a fit of anger or a desire for revenge. Their crimes, overshadowed by the few, sensational cases, are ignored, forgotten or written off. This book examines all the known murders in London in 1888 to build a p...

A unique tour through British history—from the perspective of the peasants and the poverty-stricken.The past is traditionally told from the viewpoint of kings and queens, politicians and pioneers. But what about the people struggling to survive at the very lowest levels of society?A Pauper's History of England covers a thousand years of poverty, from Domesday right up to the twentieth century, via the Black Death and the English Civil War. It paint...

Discover the darker side of Islington with this remarkable collection of true-life crimes from across the area of London. Combining meticulous research with evocative photography, the author provides a feast of crime to haunt the imagination of any reader interested in criminal and local history.

* 19 May 1536: Anne Boleyn, charged with high treason, is beheaded at the Tower of London * 31 August 1888: Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, is found murdered in Buck's Row * 18 December 1914: George Joseph Smith murders his wife in a Blackpool boarding house bath, sparking the police investigation that finally ended his killing spree * 13 August 1964: Peter Allen and Gwynne Owen Evans go to the gallows, the last two men to be executed in the UK This volume contains 3...