Throughout the nineteenth century and twentieth century, various attempts were made to define and control problematic behaviour in public by legal and legislative means through the use of a somewhat nebulous concept of ‘indecency’. Remarkably however, public indecency remains a much under-researched aspect of English legal, social and criminal justice history.Covering a period of just over a century, from 1857 (the date of the passing of the first Obscene Publications Act) to 1960 ...

In 1874, the acclaimed photographer Eadweard Muybridge—famed for capturing the first motion image of a galloping horse—shot and killed his wife’s lover, Major Harry Larkyns. In what became known as the trial of the century, Muybridge was acquitted on the grounds of justifiable homicide. His much younger wife, Flora, died less than a year later, leaving behind a son, Florado—whose paternity was in question and whose future would be shaped by silence, shame, and abandonment.In Li...

Full-cast adaptations of two of Jane Harris’s gripping novels - plus an interview with the authorListen now to these two stunning, suspenseful historical dramas, performed by a full cast and based on the novels by best-selling author, Jane Harris.The Observations transports listeners to Scotland, 1863. A young Irish girl, Bessy Buckley, escapes her former life as a prostitute when she's hired as a maid in a big house near Edinburgh...