A reading from Fatal Evidence
Alfred Swaine Taylor and the arsenic in the wallpaper
Author: admin
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...
Real-life ecclesiastical sleuths: Reverend Wilkins & The Tragedy at Wix
Ecclesiastical sleuths are not unknown to crime fiction and drama – there’s Father Dowling, there’s G K Chesterton’s Father Brown, and J...
Live Fatal Evidence Twitter Q and A
Fatal Evidence, my biography of leading 19th century forensic scientist Alfred Swaine Taylor, is published on Sunday 30th July. Join me between 12pm and 2pm BST...
Strange history: BBC1’s Taboo
**SPOILER WARNINGS** I was excited about BBC1’s gritty historical drama Taboo. After all, it was created by Steven Knight (the man behind Peaky Blinders, ...
Endeavour and the crime scene photos that never were
Warning: for spoilers and dead people. Television series Endeavour tells the adventures of young Inspector Morse, when he was mere Detective Constable Morse. I ...
Ask Augustus
It’s not long now until my second book is published. Fatal Evidence is the first book-length biography of 19th-century forensic scientist Professor Alfred...