17th century… “The Noble Birth of Robin Hood” (1662) 4 Jan 2016 Introduction In the sixteenth century a peculiar genre of romance emerged known as picaresque fiction. It originated in Spain and portrayed the lives of rogues and criminals. The first such…
15th Century… Christmas in Newgate Gaol 23 Dec 2015 Newgate gaol was London’s most infamous gaol. It was built in the twelfth century as a place to hold prisoners until judges were available to debate their innocence. The original…
17th century… Captain James Hind (1616-1652): The Royalist Highwayman 15 Dec 2015 William Harrison Ainsworth’s novel Rookwood (1834) is the work which, along with Edward Bulwer Lytton’s lesser novel Paul Clifford (1830) imbued eighteenth-century highwaymen to legendary status. Ainsworth wanted to write…
16th Century… Female Highwaymen 18 Oct 201518 Oct 2015 Highway robbery is predominantly thought of as a male-gendered crime, and it is true that the vast majority of those found in the dock at the Old Bailey in eighteenth-century…
15th Century… What is a book? 23 Jul 201523 Jul 2015 book [bʊk] noun. book; plural noun: books; noun: the book: a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers. Above…
17th century… Robin Hood the Brute: The Outlaw in Eighteenth-Century Criminal Biography 20 Jul 201520 Jul 2015 This is a copy of the paper that I presented at the International Association for Robin Hood Studies 'Outlaws in Context' Conference, 30 June - 1 July 2015. Abstract. The…
