16th Century… Gamaliel Ratsey (d.1605): The Man whose Life Kick-started the “True Crime” Genre 18 Mar 2020 By Stephen Basdeo Gamaliel Ratsey was born in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, during the late sixteenth century.[1] Little is known of Ratsey’s early life; his father, Richard, and his wife had…
19th Century… Jack Harkaway: The Victorian Harry Potter 26 Jun 2019 By Stephen Basdeo The Victorians in many ways were just like us: they enjoyed a good scandal whenever it was reported in the press, they liked both trashy and high-brow…
19th Century… An English Republican’s View of Crime and its Causes 19 May 201819 May 2018 By Stephen Basdeo George William MacArthur Reynolds (1814-79) was one of the Victorian era’ most prolific novelists. Inspired by Eugene Sue’s Mysteries of Paris (1843), Reynolds’s famous The Mysteries of…
16th Century… “Lazarillo de Tormes” (1554) 26 Aug 201627 Aug 2016 Introduction The anonymously-authored Lazarillo de Tormes was first published in Spain in 1554.[1] It is a picaresque novel – a term derived from picaro meaning ‘rogue’ or ‘rascal’. The genre…
17th century… Capt. Alexander Smith’s “A History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts, and Cheats” (1714) 10 Jul 2016 The eighteenth century was a period which witnessed a great deal of interest in crime. With a rising crime rate, and an inefficient system of law enforcement that consisted of…
15th Century… Curteous Outlaws and Elizabethan Rogues: The 16th-Century Context of “A Gest of Robyn Hode” 7 Jun 2016 A conference paper to be delivered at the Forthcoming MEMS Festival, University of Kent, 17-18 June 2016. Introduction A number of excellent scholarly examinations have been carried out upon A…
