{"title":"Books by Nicola Sly","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781399048903","title":"Broadmoor Inmates","description":"'Broadmoor Inmates: True Crime Tales of Life and Death in the Asylum' brings together the histories of people who died in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, each having committed a crime that led to them being pronounced criminally insane, necessitating their confinement and containment for their own protection, as well as that of the public. Nowadays, staff have a wide range of therapeutic tools at their disposal but historically the only treatment offered to patients was work, leisure activities and abundant fresh air. All human life is here - the addicts, the mentally deranged, the delusional, the tragic and the chronically and postnatally depressed - men and women whose acts of madness led them to be reviled and feared, but who were often as much victims of their own internal demons as were those they harmed.   As well as wife murderers James Potter and Peter Whittle, the characters within include Henry Dommett, James Senior and Mary Ann Parr, who each killed their own children and Christiana Edmunds, who poisoned several people in Brighton to divert suspicion from herself, after attempting to murder her love rival. Other vignettes include serial arsonist John Green, counterfeiter Emma Jackson and James Stevenson and Roderick Edward McClean, both of whom took exception to the accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to the throne, the latter attempting to assassinate her. Daniel McNaughten became so paranoid about the 'Tory' spies that he believed followed him constantly that he killed a civil servant in 1843, mistakenly believing his victim to be prime minister Sir Robert Peel. Such was McNaughten's derangement that his crime spawned a new standard for the legal definition of insanity.   Generously illustrated throughout, this book will prove of interest to those with a fascination for historical true crime and the way its perpetrators were dealt with by society.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204273635506,"sku":"9781399048903","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399048903.jpg?v=1786019269"},{"product_id":"ghostly-almanac-of-devon-and-cornwall","title":"A Ghostly Almanac of Devon and Cornwall","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Ghostly Almanac of Devon \u0026amp; Cornwall\u003c\/em\u003e is a month-by-month catalogue of reported spectral sightings and paranormal phenomena from around the South West of England.\u003c\/strong\u003e Contained within the pages of this book are strange tales of restless spirits appearing in streets, buildings and churchyards across the region, including a haunted German U-Boat wrecked off Padstow during the First World War; the 'Grey Lady' at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, so-named because of her grey nurse's uniform; the ghost of a Dartmoor Prison inmate seen herding sheep in the prison grounds and out on the moor itself; a shade with a penchant for horror films at Plymouth's Reel Cinema; and the infamous 'Hairy Hands of Dartmoor', which forces drivers off the road. Richly illustrated with 100 photographs and postcards, this chilling collection of stories will appeal to everyone with an interest in the West Country's haunted heritage, and is guaranteed to make your blood run cold.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481464742261,"sku":"9780752452685","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780752452685.jpg?v=1786089727"},{"product_id":"a-grim-almanac-of-leicestershire","title":"A Grim Almanac of Leicestershire","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Grim Almanac of Leicestershire \u003c\/i\u003eis a day-by-day catalogue of 366 macabre moments from the county’s past.\u003c\/strong\u003e Featured here are such diverse tales as mining disasters, freak weather conditions, industrial catastrophes, train crashes and tragic accidents, including the Oadby woman who was killed by a wasp sting in 1925 and Dorothy Cain, who performed her first ever parachute jump in 1926 — without her parachute. Among the murders detailed in this volume are the assisted suicide of the vicar of Hungerton in 1925, and the unsolved ‘Green Bicycle Murder’ of 1919 at Little Stretton.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGenerously illustrated with 100 pictures, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Leicestershire’s grim past. Read on... if you dare!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481504883061,"sku":"9780752487441","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780752487441.jpg?v=1786089770"},{"product_id":"somerset-murders","title":"Somerset Murders","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSomerset Murders\u003c\/em\u003e brings together numerous murderous tales that shocked not only the county but also made headlines throughout the country.\u003c\/strong\u003e They include the cases of Elizabeth and Betty Branch, a mother and daughter who beat a young servant girl to death in Hemington in 1740; 13-year-old Betty Trump, whose throat was cut while walking home at Buckland St Mary in 1823; factory worker Joan Turner, battered to death in Chard in 1829; George Watkins, killed in a bare knuckle fight outside the Running Horse pub in Yeovil in 1843; Constance Kent, who confessed in 1865 to killing her half-brother at Rode in 1860, nearly five years earlier; and elderly landlay, Mrs Emily Bowers, strangled in her bed in Middlezoy in 1947. Nicola Sly and John van der Kiste, co-authors of Cornish Murders in this series, have an encyclopedic knowledge of their subject. Their carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Somerset's history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57629186523509,"sku":"9780750947954","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780750947954.jpg?v=1791212849"},{"product_id":"oxfordshire-murders","title":"Oxfordshire Murders","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eOxfordshire Murders\u003c\/em\u003e brings together twenty-five murderous tales, some which were little known outside the county, and others which made national headlines.\u003c\/strong\u003e Contained within the pages of this book are the stories behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Oxfordshire. They include the deaths of two gamekeepers, brutally murdered in 1824 and 1835; Henrietta Walker, killed by her husband at Chipping Norton in 1887; Mary Allen, shot by Harry Rowles at Cassington in the same year; and Anne Kempson, murdered by Henry Seymour, a door-to-door salesman, in Oxford in 1931. Nicola Sly's carefully researched and enthralling text will appeal to anyone interested in the shady side of Oxfordshire's history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57647701819765,"sku":"9780752453590","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780752453590.jpg?v=1791828014"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-nicola-sly.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}