While this book is a history of the English murder mystery, Worsley's style is not pedantic, but engaging with some humor along the way and informative of new knowledge and insights gained by this reader. I also love my Brit-Box-(Worsely has a television version of this book currently airing on this service) and Acorn TV subscriptions too. About the time I would think, for example, "Next up should be the Road Hill House Murder and its influence on novels like The Moonstone," there the expected chapter would be. She takes us through the major real-life cases of the Victorian age, such as the Road Hill House murder or the Maria Manning case and shows how these were reflected both in stage melodrama and in the early crime fiction of Dickens, Wilkie Collins et al. But her real interest – reminiscient of the line taken by Judith Flanders in her 2010 book The Invention of Murder – lies in the way murder was portrayed in the emerging media, and how the public responded to depictions of fatal crimes.

A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley | Waterstones A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley | Waterstones

As public hangings became rarer and literacy increased, people turned to newspaper reports of real-life crimes, and to the fictional accounts they spawned. After discussion of Arthur Conan Doyle's, Charles Dickens' and Wilkie Collins' contributions to the fictional portrayal of detectives, the book considers the Four Queens of Crime of the interwar period, which has become known as the Golden Age of crime fiction. Here I would give guided tours, occasionally feed the llamas, and look for important pieces of paper that my boss Anthony had lost. Well, Worsley wrote a whole book explaining it better that that, and a very entertaining book it is, tracing the rise of newspapers, fictional detectives, the golden age of crime writing.This book formed the basis of a short TV series presented by Lucy on the history of the British crime novel.

A Very British Murder: The Story Of A National Obsession A Very British Murder: The Story Of A National Obsession

Lucy Worsley is one of my favourite historians, she is always so enthusiastic and engaging, with a wonderful sense of humour and great insight. The fact that the British enjoyed and couldn’t get enough of murder is outlined and discussed by Worsley but not meant to be an encompassing book on crime itself.Lucy has also written numerous other books, including Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses. The same point holds for Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver, probably the most famous English spinster detective after Miss Marple. In 2014, the three-part series The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain explored the contributions of the German-born kings GeorgeI and GeorgeII. The growth of literacy in the 19th century led to a pulpish, sensational style of literature for the working masses. This non-fiction book outlines the history of British Crime- both real and fictional and their obsession with crime and murder.

A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley, review - The Telegraph A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsley, review - The Telegraph

On a personal note, Worsley's balanced and insightful analysis helped me finally to articulate why I can read Wilkie Collins or Arthur Conan Doyle all day long, over and over again with relish, while the works of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Būtume kitokie – nebūtų tų penktojo „Lietryčio“ puslapio skaitytojų (tiesa sakant, nebežinau, ar kriminalinės naujienos vis dar bazuojasi penktam puslapy – bet esmės tai nekeičia). A Very British Murder — история о возникновении полиции и развитии детективного жанра: например, автор подобно рассказывает о прототипах героев Диккенса и преступлениях, которые оказали влияние на творчество Хичкока. She served as Chief Curator of a United Kingdom historical preservation foundation known as Historic Royal Palaces. The subject matter itself is not groundbreaking or perspective-changing but interesting nevertheless if you have a fondness for detective fiction as I do.As its subtitle suggests, it tells “the story of a national obsession”: how, over the past two centuries, the British have reacted to the changing circumstances of murder and developed it into a form of entertainment.

A Very British Murder - Worsley, Lucy: 9781849906517 - AbeBooks A Very British Murder - Worsley, Lucy: 9781849906517 - AbeBooks

In her teens, Worsley represented Berkshire at crosscountryrunning and, as a pastime, is still a keen participant in the sport.Worsley also presented a companion TV series (which I didn’t watch) and the book is written in an episodic format, presumably to tie in with that. The thesis was later developed into Worsley's book Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses published in 2007. I was quite engaged by the beginning, as it details the shocking murders that were reported with such scandalous relish they garnered a wide interest and in a changing worl of industrial revolution and urbanization changed the public perception of such incidents.