sections:
In his essay Decline of the English Murder, published in 1946 George Orwell lamented the decline of the traditional murder during the war years. He drew a picture of the reader after a large roast dinner reading about a lurid account of a murder in one of the Sunday newspapers. It was also clearly a popular topic in pubs and clubs. Mass Observation reporters noted down the frequency in which the subject occurred in the conversation of the pub-goers of ‘Worktown’ ( Bolton) in the late-1930s.
Literary critics have also hailed the inter-war period as being the Golden Age of Crime Fiction. Agatha Christie, G K Chesterton, Josephine Hey, Graham Greene and many others wrote mystery novels which remain immensely popular today.
Yet the inter-war period is thought today to be a period of law and order, when doors could be left unlocked and the police were respected. Why was there this dichotomy between the perception and the reality?
Although there are many books about the inter-war period, there is no a general history of criminal activity. There has never been a better time for the book particularly as police and intelligence files about crimes and criminals are being declassified almost on a monthly basis.
This book is a serious, yet accessible study of a neglected aspect of British social history, combining a plethora of examples culled from files and newspapers.
Key topics include:
- Some of the more notable murders of the period, as well as one or two cases which deserve to be better known
- Gang activities: During the period gangs were a major threat to peace and order. They fought over controlling betting both on-course and off-course (where it was illegal) which led to riots at race courses and attempted to run prostitution
- Technological developments: both including new crimes such as those related to motoring, as well as those adopted by police (radios) and criminals (fast cars)
- Media coverage: crime sold newspapers, with a combination of sensational stories portraying
Britain as a violent society threatened by foreigners and titillated readers with gory murders committed by those who broke the moral code - Crime policy: There will be an examination of the attempts to control crime by the police, such as Scotland Yard’s introduction of the Flying Squad and policy initiatives in Whitehall, for example over banning narcotics.
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