Guest blog: The Mystery of the Sailor in the River
A guest blog for Wivenhoe’s History about a sailor who drowned in the River Colne in 1850. But all was not as it seemed. (A shorter version of this text w...
Author: admin
The Great Storm
Today is the thirtieth anniversary of what became known as The Great Storm, which ripped its way across the south-east of England on the night of 15th and 16th ...
A trip to London
Having travelled to Rugeley and to Edinburgh in pursuit of Alfred Swaine Taylor for my book Fatal Evidence, it was time to go to London and Kent. He was born in...
A trip to Edinburgh
I’d wanted to go on holiday to Edinburgh for ages, and was rather pleased that I could combine it with the writing of my book, Fatal Evidence. But what do...
A trip to Rugeley
One of Alfred Swaine Taylor‘s most famous cases was that of William Palmer, The Rugeley Poisoner. As I live in the West Midlands, Rugeley isn’t all ...
A reading from Fatal Evidence
Alfred Swaine Taylor and the arsenic in the wallpaper
When “used” is “new”
My second book was published on Monday. The copies arrived with my publisher on the Friday before. So imagine my surprise when, only a couple of days later, two...
Real-life ecclesiastical sleuths: Reverend Cancellor & The Eastbourne Manslaughter
At depth of night, this thought on home had shone; ‘Our distant child draws safe his sleeping breath.’ E’en then the cherish’d boy, th’ expected son, Was dying ...
Who was R O Gilmore?
Among the many adventures I had writing Alfred Swaine Taylor‘s biography, I decided to track down the previous owner of a book. I work at a well-stocked l...
The time I met a national treasure
I once, briefly, met actor and national treasure Robert Hardy. He died today, and the first thing I thought of was the fact that his booming voice has been sile...