The Top Ten Best Novels Based on True Crimes

The Top Ten Best Novels Based on True Crimes

From the Newgate Calendar to Serial and Making a Murderer, we have long been fascinated by true crime – by what leads people to commit a terrible deeds, and by what happens to a person when, rightfully or wrongfully, they are convicted. In real life, there are often...
Behind Bars: Writing Prisons

Behind Bars: Writing Prisons

I’ve spent quite a bit of time in prison. Admittedly, not as an inmate, but as a solicitor visiting clients. My first training ‘seat’ was in the Home Office Prisons Team, defending cases brought by prisoners in person. Later, I left Government to bring claims...
Did Mary Shelley Keep Percy’s Heart?

Did Mary Shelley Keep Percy’s Heart?

At the end of August, Percy Bysshe Shelley spoke to me from the grave. Via Twitter. On Mary Shelley’s birthday, I’d tweeted that she’d out-gothed us all by keeping Shelley’s heart after he died. Up pops Shelley to correct me. No, he says, the heart couldn’t have...