Showing results by author "Nick Baker" in All Categories

On the surface, the Victorian age is one of propriety, industry, prudishness and piety. But scratch the surface and you'll find scandal, sadism, sex, madness, malice and murder.

Perhaps thanks to TV period dramas, the popular imagination may picture the Edwardian era as an idyllic window between the wars, a time of manners and tea on the lawn. But below the surface lies a frenetic and often bizarre age where scientific leaps forward went hand in hand with belief in fairies, and secrets of sex, lies and murder simmered. Across 12 episodes, in this sequel to his Victorian Secrets, Stephen Fry uncovers some of the startling and unexpected hidden histories of the Edwardians.

Carolyn Pickles retraces the true story of how 11 people came to be brutally cut with a deadly sharp implement, in a spate of attacks that left a town in a state of fear and police mystified about the identity of the attacker. Halifax, West Yorkshire, 1938. The hunt is on for a razor-wielding attacker, possibly a murderer. The papers name him 'The Halifax Slasher'. A huge reward is offered for leads to his arrest. Vigilante groups form, and innocent men are set upon. Baffled, police argue with each other about how to catch the suspect.