Crime

T.H. Corfe analyses a double assassination in Dublin that long left its scar on Anglo-Irish relations.

A gifted utilitarian, and sometime Member of Parliament, Douglas Hurd writes that John Bowring spent ten tumultuous years in China where he believed in supporting the cause of progress with British gunboats.

The stigma of illegitimacy forced many women in Victorian Britain to hand over their babies to adopters or ‘baby farmers’. Barbara Butcher tells the story of Amelia Dyer, who killed numerous infants she was paid to care for.

Tim Stanley draws parallels between a New York gang war of the 1900s and an act of horrific violence in south London.

Roderick Cameron explains how, during the 50 years that followed Governor Phillip’s landing at Botany Bay in 1788, convicts and free settlers turned New South Wales into a flourishing colony.

The standing of Britain’s police forces may be in decline at home, yet their insights into policing methods and practices are still sought eagerly elsewhere, according to Clive Emsley and Georgina Sinclair.

What was behind Colonel Thomas Blood’s failed attempt to steal the Crown Jewels during the cash-strapped reign of Charles II and how did he survive such a treasonable act? 

Identifying those who took part in the recent riots in London and other English cities may prove easier than in past disorders, but the recent widespread introduction of surveillance technology brings its own problems, argues Edward Higgs.

James Whitfield on why the theft of a Spanish master’s portrait of a British military hero led to a change in the law.

Detective stories captured the imaginations of the British middle classes in the 20th century. William D. Rubinstein looks at the rise of home-grown writers such as Agatha Christie, how they mirrored society and why changes in social mores eventually murdered their sales.